Synonym Chooser

How is the word province distinct from other similar nouns?

Some common synonyms of province are duty, function, and office. While all these words mean "the acts or operations expected of a person or thing," province applies to a function, office, or duty that naturally or logically falls to one.

I felt it was not my province to inquire — Anne Brontë

Where would duty be a reasonable alternative to province?

The words duty and province are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, duty applies to a task or responsibility imposed by one's occupation, rank, status, or calling.

it is the judicial duty of the court, to examine the whole case — R. B. Taney

When is function a more appropriate choice than province?

The meanings of function and province largely overlap; however, function implies a definite end or purpose or a particular kind of work.

the function of language is two-fold: to communicate emotion and to give information — Aldous Huxley

When can office be used instead of province?

The synonyms office and province are sometimes interchangeable, but office is typically applied to the function or service associated with a trade or profession or a special relationship to others.

they exercise the offices of the judge, the priest, the counsellor — W. E. Gladstone

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of province In response to Yanukovych’s downfall, abetted by American meddling to some greater or lesser extent, Putin moved into Crimea and aided rebels in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas provinces in their armed struggle against the new pro-Western Ukrainian regime. Samuel Moyn, Harpers Magazine, 16 July 2025 Nearly half of Spain's provinces were hit by intense flash floods, prompting over 200 emergency calls, hospital evacuations, and a Delta flight to turn back due to hail damage. Opheli Garcia Lawler, Travel + Leisure, 14 July 2025 Chinese companies still rely on furniture heartlands like Shandong and Fujian province, the latter of which is a bamboo producing area. Sofia Celeste, Footwear News, 10 July 2025 Pontianak, capital city of Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, shares its name with a fearsome monster from Malay folklore, known variously as Pontianak or Kuntilanak. H.m.a. Leow, JSTOR Daily, 5 July 2025 See All Example Sentences for province
Recent Examples of Synonyms for province
Noun
  • With the vote scheduled for Nov. 5, the week after the Monk show, supporters and detractors had been plastering the area with flyers too.
    David Kushner, Rolling Stone, 20 July 2025
  • Friday, July 25 8 p.m. ET: Great White Reign of Terror - In South Africa, two people are killed by great whites near the eastern cape, an area that hasn’t seen an attack in decades.
    Monica Mercuri, Forbes.com, 20 July 2025
Noun
  • The department uses a Rural Mail Carrier Survey to track Ohio’s rabbit population, which involves distributing survey cards to all postmasters across the state, who then give the cards to the carriers delivering mail on rural routes.
    Emma Wozniak, The Enquirer, 31 July 2025
  • Refugee screening clinic: The department is slowly winding down.
    Nicole Villalpando, Austin American Statesman, 31 July 2025
Noun
  • In the realm of the visual, the Renaissance umanisti became humanists in our sense, almost by accident: what the painters learned from the past gave them license to enliven their work with faces, bodies, and desires.
    Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 28 July 2025
  • The modular form’s numbers only had to be equivalent in the realm of what’s known as clock arithmetic.
    Joseph Howlett, Wired News, 27 July 2025
Noun
  • These children show difficulties across almost every domain: language, cognition, behavior.
    William A. Haseltine, Forbes.com, 21 July 2025
  • Second, the challenge the hybrid device would have to sign would be bound to the domain of the fake site (here okta[.]login-request[.]com) and not the genuine Okta.com domain.
    Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 18 July 2025
Noun
  • Hegar's projection, officially called the biennial revenue estimate, is a crucial element in the setup to Tuesday's start of the 2025 legislative session.
    John C. Moritz, Austin American Statesman, 30 July 2025
  • Long spoke on the city's programming for youth, which has been a major element of the city's plan to combat juvenile crime during the summertime.
    David Ferrara, The Enquirer, 30 July 2025
Noun
  • Because once somebody is in the kingdom, things can happen to them, and the Western press doesn't really know.
    Edward Felsenthal, Time, 23 July 2025
  • Over the same period, Saudi Arabia’s citizens gained visa-free access to four countries, bringing its total to 91 countries, which lifts the kingdom four places to No. 54.
    Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, Forbes.com, 22 July 2025
Noun
  • But the rocket quickly lost power from two of its engines and stalled just above the launch pad before coming down in a nearby field.
    Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 30 July 2025
  • This field is generating significant buzz among major tech companies like IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.
    Karoline Leonard, Austin American Statesman, 30 July 2025
Noun
  • The city earned a bike score of 57.6 and walk score of 61.5 — the latter being nearly 12 points higher than Madison's walk score.
    Maia Pandey, jsonline.com, 24 July 2025
  • On the other side of the harbor, about a 15-minute walk from Saegreifinn, the Grandi district is an industrial zone breaking out with creative spots.
    New York Times, New York Times, 24 July 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Province.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/province. Accessed 2 Aug. 2025.

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