Skip to main content
provision

provision

51 3.8
A supply of food and other needed items kept for future use
  • noun
  • /prəˈvɪʒən/
translation icon : víveres
  • The campers stocked up on provisions like canned food and bottled water before heading into the wilderness.
  • provision of food
  • supply of provisions

Examples

  • Let's get the water and provisions into the wagon.

  • The only provisions you'll be given will be what's necessary for your survival.

  • Well, I want provisions for 25 men for a month.

  • I have provisions for five months and I have a device here that can turn snow into drinking water.

  • The storm stole their provisions.

  • From the beginning, social legislation in Chile included provisions for protecting women in their role as mothers.

    Academic text (1999)
  • An assessment of physiological and safety needs is often completed, and provisions are made for food, clothing, and shelter.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Wren sorted through their provisions, choosing what they would need and be able to carry.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • I'll send my wife with your message, Captain Ecuyer, but after two months of siege, you've only a few days' provisions.

  • In a moment he'd recruited two men to carry the provisions to one of the meager huts.

    Fiction book (1994)

Synonyms

supplies
vsprovision
748 1.0

Things needed for an activity, like food or tools

is reserved more generally for stored necessities rather than activity specific items
supply
vsprovision
346 1.0

An amount of something available to use when needed

is a kept stock intended for future use especially food or necessities
reserve
vsprovision
194 3.5

A supply kept for future use, often in an emergency

is the ordinary kept supply for general future needs rather than special
stock
vsprovision
185 2.2

A supply of goods or materials kept for future use

is held mainly for personal or essential future needs rather than sale
store
vsprovision
113 1.0

A supply of things kept for future use

is identical in sense and used interchangeably across ordinary contexts
stockpile
vsprovision
45 4.2

A large supply of goods kept for future use

is the standard kept supply but not necessarily so large or long term
food supply
vsprovision
36 2.0

The amount of food available to people in a place

is broader applying to any necessities kept for future use not only food
reservoir
vsprovision
18 4.7

A large supply of something kept for use when needed

is the more direct term for a kept supply for everyday future needs
larder
vsprovision
  • UK
3 6.6

A supply of food kept at home to use later

covers similar kept stock but applies beyond household or kitchen storage
provisions
vsprovision
1 2.6

A supply of food and other needed things for a trip

is a broader kept stock for future use beyond travel situations

Antonyms

40 5.3

A decrease in how much of something is left, often until it is used up

Compounds

9.9

A rule a company uses to stop a takeover by making itself less attractive to other companies

How Much

stockpile
45 4.2
reserve
194 3.5
provision
51 3.8
supply
346 1.0

Surface Forms

provision singular
provisions plural

Morphology

provision = vision (opaque) = pro + vision

The meaning shift from 'seeing' to 'supply' is not transparent to learners.

Etymology

Provision comes from Latin parts pro- 'before' and videre 'to see', so it originally meant 'to see ahead' and prepare. It is the same root as provide and vision, which is why a provision is a supply kept for the future.