Provide

How to spell provide

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce provide

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does provide mean?

1. verbTo supply or make something available to someone who needs it.

Provide in a sentence

• The company will provide each employee with a laptop.

• Local charities provide meals to families in need.

Where does provide come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Provide comes from the Latin providere, which literally meant 'to see ahead' or 'to look forward', built from pro 'ahead' and videre 'to see'. The original sense was about foreseeing and preparing for what was to come, and from that idea of looking ahead grew the modern meaning of supplying what will be needed. English took the word up in the early 1400s, drawing on both the Latin form and its passage through medieval scholarly Latin. The same providere is the root of 'provident', 'providence', and even 'prudent', which is simply a worn-down form of the same word. Because the d sits between two vowels, the spelling is regular and rarely trips writers, though the silent shift from videre to 'vide' is a neat reminder that the heart of the word is about seeing.

How the word is built

• pro- (forward, ahead)
• vid (from videre: to see)
• -e