Provided

How to spell provided

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce provided

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does provided mean?

1. verbSupplied or made available something that was needed or wanted.
2. conjunctionOn the condition that; only if a stated requirement is met.

Provided in a sentence

• verb

  The company provided free meals to all of its staff.

• conjunction

  Provided the weather holds, the outdoor ceremony will go ahead.

• verb

  The assembly manual provided clear diagrams for each step.

• conjunction

  The bank approved the loan provided she paid the deposit upfront.

Where does provided come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb providere, which combined pro-, meaning 'ahead' or 'before', with videre, meaning 'to see', so the literal sense was 'to see ahead' or 'to foresee'. From foreseeing a need came the idea of making arrangements for it in advance, which is how the modern sense of supplying or furnishing something developed. English took the verb 'provide' in the fifteenth century, and 'provided' is simply its past-tense and participle form with the regular -ed ending. The very same videre root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'vision', 'evident', and 'provident', and providere also gave us the doublet 'purvey' by a separate French route. The conjunction use, as in 'provided that', grew from the legal phrasing of contracts, where a clause set out a condition that had to be foreseen and met.

How the word is built

• pro- (ahead, before)
• vid (from videre: to see)
• -ed (past-tense/participle suffix)