providential
/prɒvɪˈdɛnʃ(ə)l
/adjective
1Occurring at a favourable time; opportune: his appearance had seemed more than just providential...
- Buena Vista Social Club's nomination last year was welcomed as a sign of providential change in the academy.
- James was portrayed as a victim of the affair, and attempts were made to turn the scandal to his advantage by presenting images of the plot's providential discovery and James's personal involvement as the avenger of Overbury's murder.
- A high-voltage wire snapped and fell on the busy road on Monday afternoon, and pedestrians and motorists had a providential escape.
Synonyms
opportune, advantageous, favourable, auspicious, propitious, heaven-sent, welcome, golden, good, right, lucky, happy, fortunate, benign, felicitous, timely, well timed, ripe, convenient, expedient
arahcic seasonable
2Involving divine foresight or providence: they took it for granted that the order of the world reflects a designing providential hand...
- On the contrary, the experience of Christ as Creator points us to particular creatures as those objects of God's providential care without which our understanding of the divine identity is impoverished.
- The word ‘secular’ also alludes to the moral call to homo faber to share in the divine providential ordering of creation.
- It is deep time that opens a new view of nature, which if it lacks the Divine fiat, the miraculous and providential, is no less sublime in its own way.
Synonyms
divine, heaven-sent, miraculous
Derivatives
providentially
/ adverb ...- In this view, forests, rivers, streams, waterfalls, and even deserts were providentially located at convenient locations, awaiting the hand of man.
- Epicurus arguments are effective only against the view that the world was providentially designed for the benefit of humans.
- First and most important, according to serious theism, God is constantly, immediately, intimately and directly active in his creation: he constantly upholds it in existence and providentially governs it.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from providence, on the pattern of evidential.