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Provincial vs Superior - What's the difference?

provincial | superior |

As adjectives the difference between provincial and superior

is that provincial is of or pertaining to province; constituting a province; as, a provincial government; a provincial dialect while superior is higher in quality.

As nouns the difference between provincial and superior

is that provincial is a person belonging to a province; one who is provincial while superior is a person of higher rank or quality.

provincial

English

(Webster 1913)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of or pertaining to province; constituting a province; as, a provincial government; a provincial dialect.
  • Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province.
  • * ,
  • Provincial airs and graces.
  • Not cosmopolitan; countrified; not polished; rude; hence, narrow; illiberal.
  • * Ayliffe,
  • Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical; as, a provincial synod.
  • (obsolete) Of or pertaining to Provence; Provencal.
  • * ,
  • With two Provincial roses on my razed shoes.
  • limited in outlook; narrow
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.
  • (Roman Catholicism) A monastic superior, who, under the general of his order, has the direction of all the religious houses of the same fraternity in a given district, called a province of the order.
  • * 2009 , (Diarmaid MacCulloch), A History of Christianity , Penguin 2010, p. 700:
  • The Franciscan provincial Diego de Landa set up a local Inquisition which unleashed a campaign of interrogation and torture on the Indio population.
  • A country bumpkin.
  • ----

    superior

    English

    Alternative forms

    * superiour (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Higher in quality.
  • Higher in rank.
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.}}
  • More comprehensive, as a term in classification.
  • A genus is superior to a species.
  • Located above.
  • the superior''' jaw; the '''superior part of an image
  • # (botany) Above the ovary; said of parts of the flower which, although normally below the ovary, adhere to it, and so appear to originate from its upper part; also of an ovary when the other floral organs are plainly below it in position, and free from it.
  • # (botany) Belonging to the part of an axillary flower which is toward the main stem; posterior.
  • # (botany) Pointing toward the apex of the fruit; ascending; said of the radicle.
  • # (typography) Printed in superscript.
  • a superior figure or letter
  • Greater or better than average; extraordinary.
  • Beyond the power or influence of; too great or firm to be subdued or affected by; with to .
  • * Spectator
  • There is not in earth a spectacle more worthy than a great man superior to his sufferings.

    Usage notes

    * Superior and inferior are generally followed by to; than is sometimes used mistakenly.

    Antonyms

    * (l)

    Coordinate terms

    *

    Derived terms

    * superiorness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person of higher rank or quality.
  • The senior person in a monastic community.