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Glite Dictionary
🙏 God's care 💼 Careful planning
providence

providence

1 7.7
Careful planning and use of resources to protect the future
  • noun
  • /ˈprɒvɪdəns/
translation icon : prudencia
  • Her providence in managing the family's finances ensured they could afford their children's education.

Examples

  • But they can deform and dehumanize the human world by establishing a revolutionary "human providence," instituted by the pre-utopian creator of the utopian world (UM, 160).

    Academic text (1997)

  • Parsimony requires no providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no comparison, no judgment."

    Academic text (1992)

  • The common or ordinary world must be set aside; a new human providence or will, ignoring all natural limiting principles and the demands of conscience, aims to create the authentic reality.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Scientific rationality, considered thought, logical argument, intelligence, and education—not to mention the business suits, lab coats, and other sorts of uniforms that were once, not very long ago, the sole providence of white people—are now common characteristics of black ones.

    Academic text (2010)

  • With careful providence in budgeting, they managed to save enough for a house down payment.

  • He demonstrated great providence by setting aside money for emergencies and future investments.

Synonyms

prudence
vsprovidence
18 6.1

Careful and sensible thinking and action to avoid risks

focuses on managing resources sensibly to provide for the future

Antonyms

carelessness
16 2.8

Lack of attention that causes mistakes or accidents

improvidence
  • Formal
9.9

A lack of planning ahead, especially with money or resources

How Prudent

foresight
30 5.6
providence
1 7.7
caution
158 2.5
carelessness
16 2.8

Surface Forms

providence singular
providences plural

Morphology

providence = provide (transparent) = provide + ence

This sense 'careful management or prudence in providing for the future' is a direct nominalization of 'provide' and its sense of provision/foresight is predictable.

Etymology

Providence comes from Latin parts pro- 'before' and videre 'to see', so it originally meant 'seeing ahead'. You can see the same root in provide, and that is why providence also means careful planning and sensible management of resources.