Meaning & use
regional
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Connected with a particular large area of a country or the world, rather than the whole or a single town.
Grammar: Almost always before a noun: a regional office.
Patterns
- a regional office
- regional differences
The regional manager visits all twelve stores.
Regional dishes vary widely across Italy.
The storm caused regional power cuts.
adjectivebefore a noun
Typical of a particular part of a country, such as an accent or custom.
Grammar: Describes cultural features: a regional accent.
Patterns
- a regional accent
She has a soft regional accent from the north.
The museum shows regional crafts.
Regional dialects are slowly changing.
adjectivebefore a noun
Of a middle level between local and national, such as an airport, hospital or newspaper.
Grammar: Fits services serving many towns: a regional airport.
Patterns
- a regional airport
We flew from a small regional airport.
The regional hospital serves five counties.
A regional newspaper covered the story.
Common combinations
- regional manager
- The regional manager approved the plan.
- regional variation
- There is a lot of regional variation in the accent.
- regional airport
- The regional airport has two flights a day.
- regional cuisine
- The festival celebrated regional cuisine.
- regional championship
- Our team won the regional championship.
Synonyms and how they differ
- local
- Local is narrower and means near a particular town or neighborhood, while regional covers a wider area.
- provincial
- Provincial can sound narrow-minded when describing people, while regional is neutral.
- area
- Area is a noun used loosely, whereas regional is the adjective with a defined scale.
- district
- District describes an administrative zone, whereas regional describes anything tied to a larger area.
Opposites
Word family
- region noun
- a large area of a country or the world
- regionally adverb
- in or by region
- regionalism noun
- loyalty to a region, or a word typical of one
- regionalize verb
- to divide into regions
Commonly confused: regional or national?
regional vs national
National refers to a whole country, while regional refers to only part of it.
Practice
A hospital serving several towns in one part of a country would best be called a ___ hospital.
Choose one answer.
Regional fits an area larger than a town but smaller than a nation. Local is too small, and national and global are too large.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “regional”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.