provisionary

1 7.5

Temporary and not final while waiting for approval

adjective
/prəˈvɪʒənˌɛri/

: provisional

The provisionary measures will be reviewed next week.

Examples

Her provisionary contract will expire next month.
The company's offer was purely provisionary and subject to change pending board approval.
She received a provisionary position while the hiring process continued.
The agreement is only provisionary until all parties have signed.
The contract is provisionary and must be reviewed before final approval.
She accepted a provisionary role until a permanent position became available.
The committee made a provisionary decision to allocate funds for the project pending further investigation.

Synonyms

tentative

vsprovisionary

57 5.1

Made or said without being fully certain, often as a trial

is temporary and awaits confirmation rather than expressing doubt

provisional

vsprovisionary

55 6.1

Temporary for now and likely to change

is intended to be temporary and awaits confirmation or approval

probationary

vsprovisionary

14 7.3

About a short test period before someone gets a permanent job

is temporary in general and not tied to a trial period

Antonyms

final

∞ 1.0

Last and cannot be changed or reversed

How Temporary

ephemeral

17 8.6

temporary

557 3.0

interim

113 5.0

provisionary

1 7.5

provisional

55 6.1

permanent

650 3.2

Surface Forms

provisionary positive

Morphology

provisionary = provision (semi-transparent) = provision + ary

Formed regularly from the noun 'provision' with the adjectival suffix '-ary', but the sense 'temporary; not final' aligns more with 'provisional' so learners may not predict the meaning from 'provision' alone.

Etymology

Provisionary comes from the common word provision, which is related to provide and originally meant 'to prepare or give ahead of time'. So a provisionary decision is made 'for the time being'—temporary until a final decision is made.