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PROVIDENTIAL
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Dictionary entry overview: What does providential mean?
• PROVIDENTIAL (adjective)
The adjective PROVIDENTIAL has 3 senses:
1. peculiarly fortunate or appropriate; as if by divine intervention
2. relating to or characteristic of providence
3. resulting from divine providence
Familiarity information: PROVIDENTIAL used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Peculiarly fortunate or appropriate; as if by divine intervention
Synonyms:
heaven-sent; miraculous; providential
Context example:
a providential recovery
Similar:
fortunate (having unexpected good fortune)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Relating to or characteristic of providence
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Context example:
assumption that nature operates only according to a providential plan
Pertainym:
providence (a manifestation of God's foresightful care for his creatures)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Resulting from divine providence
Synonyms:
divine; providential
Context example:
a providential visitation
Similar:
heavenly (of or belonging to heaven or god)
Derivation:
providence (the guardianship and control exercised by a deity)
providence (a manifestation of God's foresightful care for his creatures)
Context examples
How providential that he had presence of mind to think of the water-jug!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
“What a providential thing that this young man should press his right thumb against the wall in taking his hat from the peg! Such a very natural action, too, if you come to think of it.”
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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