provisional
/pɹəˈvɪʒənəl/adjective, noun
provisional is spelled P-R-O-V-I-S-I-O-N-A-L. The wrong spelling people search most is provisonal: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 60 of all searches for the word. Provisional is an adjective meaning “Temporary, but with the intention of eventually becoming permanent or being replaced by a permanent equivalent”.
How many letters and syllables are in provisional?
| Letters | 11: P-R-O-V-I-S-I-O-N-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.6 times per million words; the 11,870th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, provisonal, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell provisional?
Provisional is spelled P-R-O-V-I-S-I-O-N-A-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 60 of the searches for provisional in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is provisional?
Provisional appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce provisional?
- /pɹəˈvɪʒənəl/
Provisional has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-provisional.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of provisional
- provisionals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does provisional mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Temporary, but with the intention of eventually becoming permanent or being replaced by a permanent equivalent.
Marsden and Jones were named in the provisional squad for the European Championships, to be confirmed before the 30 June deadline.
noun
- 1
A postage stamp issued locally before an official issue is released.
- 2
An interim denture.
noun
- 1
a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate provisional?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of provisional: P.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Provisional in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense temporary:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | provisoire, temporaire |
| German | provisorisch, vorläufig |
| Portuguese | provisório |
| Spanish | provisional, provisorio |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does provisional come from?
From provision + -al, or else from Middle French provisionnal (modern French provisionnel). Compare Latin prōvīsiōnālis.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).