provincial capital
- noun
- The district governor of Greshk, Saleem Khan Rody, was in Lashkargah, the provincial capital, to attend his daughter's wedding.
Examples
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JUVC's main office is in Chivay, the provincial capital of Caylloma, located at 3,600 meters above sea level.
Academic text (2016) -
The refurbishing of a hospital in one provincial capital is a centerpiece of the effort.
Academic text (2003) -
I got a friend in the provincial capital.
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Of course, outside the provincial capital of Krina, there is the castle.
Fiction book (1990) -
Most of the large coastal cities are provincial capitals.
Academic text (1993) -
Everyone in Saigon was worried about losing a provincial capital like Pleiku.
Fiction book (1997) -
Conquered territories were ruled from provincial capitals by governors who were usually military commanders.
Academic text (1990) -
Getting there: Yuanyang County is about 320 kilometers south of Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan.
Blog text (6) -
In 1910, they opened a railway connecting Hanoi with Yunnan's provincial capital of Yunnan-fu (now Kunming).
Academic text (2008) -
The earthquake badly damaged the provincial capital, leaving cracks in major roads.
Synonyms
The city where a country's government works
A city where the state government has its main offices
How Important
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'provincial' (relating to a province) modifies 'capital' (a city serving as a seat of government), so a B1 learner who knows both words will infer it denotes the administrative city of a province. This construction is transparent and cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'capital provincial', French 'capitale provinciale'), making the sense immediately predictable.
Etymology
Provincial capital is a compound word made from province, a region, and capital, the main city. Picture a flag on the most important city where the province's leaders meet and the government works. So, it means 'the city that serves as the administrative center of a province'.