province

1. (historical, Ancient Rome, Roman Empire) An area outside Italy which is administered by a Roman governor or prefect.Examples: "He reminded his audience of events in 88BC, when the same Mithridates invaded the Roman province of Asia, on the western coast of Turkey."Synonyms: eparchyAncient-RomeRoman-Empirehistorical

2. (Christianity) An area under the jurisdiction of an archbishop, typically comprising a number of adjacent dioceses.Examples: "In 1309, neither the Archbishop of Canterbury nor his suffragans would attend in Parliament while the Archbishop of York had the cross borne erect before him in the province of Canterbury."

3. (Roman Catholicism) An area under the jurisdiction of a provincial within a monastic order.

4. (in the plural, chiefly with definite article) The parts of a country outside its national capital.Examples: "To-day the first part of the new Indian Constitution comes into force with the granting of a large measure of autonomy to the provinces."; ""What are the Russian provinces?" he said. "Dirt, ruins, poverty, drunkenness. That is what we need to be working on, rather than expanding our prison to include Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Belarus. That is the kind of Russian nationalist that I am…. There is no sense in using force to hold people that don’t want to be with you.""Synonyms: countryside, flyover countryin-pluralwith-definite-article

5. (geology) A major region defined by common geologic attributes and history.