How to Use provenance in a Sentence

provenance

noun
  • Has anyone traced the provenances of these paintings?
  • The artifact is of unknown provenance.
  • There is the rare piece that Lawson doesn’t know the provenance of.
    — Wendy Goodman, Curbed, 4 Nov. 2024
  • The first problem is the provenance of the sky disk itself.
    — Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 8 May 2021
  • Even without the provenance, this would be a watch to own.
    — Bloomberg.com, 30 Mar. 2018
  • Its provenance is a bit of a mystery, and the sparkler has been rarely seen since.
    — Janine Henni, People.com, 20 Nov. 2024
  • The provenance of the bearing pads is deeper in the supply chain.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 16 May 2021
  • To be able to get an aircraft with this kind of record, this kind of provenance . . .
    — Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post, 19 Nov. 2020
  • How much do customers care about the provenance of their shoes?
    — Jacob Gallagher, WSJ, 24 Sep. 2018
  • But the provenance of the rest of them remains a matter of opinion.
    — National Geographic, 21 Apr. 2017
  • With the help of social media, Frith and his friends were able to track down the provenance of this rare find.
    — Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Apr. 2025
  • Of course, single malt is not the provenance of Scotland alone.
    — Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 15 Mar. 2022
  • The provenance of this argument was of course the fallout over Omar.
    — Nr Staff, National Review, 19 July 2019
  • The provenance of the hair found at Union College appears to be promising.
    — Rick Rojas, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2018
  • But price and provenance are tricky things in the Tinga Tinga world.
    — Jody Jaffe, latimes.com, 19 June 2017
  • There is some mystery surrounding the provenance of Princess Anne’s copy of the brooch.
    — Jennifer Newman, Town & Country, 17 May 2022
  • Throughout the art world, the provenance of certain pieces is always top of mind.
    — Tori Latham, Robb Report, 22 Aug. 2023
  • And a swap can be a better place than the typical plant shop to find a plant with a provenance.
    — Michelle Slatalla, WSJ, 7 June 2018
  • But the provenance of some of the more alarmist Biden-is-feeble memes, many of them built on raw footage of a few stumbles, is murky.
    — Clare Malone, The New Yorker, 25 Jan. 2024
  • One enigma Whalen still wonders about is the provenance of the water in Earth’s oceans.
    — Conor Feehly, Scientific American, 4 Mar. 2025
  • Everyone knows that quiche’s provenance, but no one’s rude enough to call out the host.
    — Dorrie Greenspan, The Denver Post, 18 Apr. 2017
  • Compared to the original copy, the new copy’s provenance wasn’t as strong.
    — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Apr. 2025
  • In the wider scope of history, the ponytail’s precise provenance is a bit hazy.
    — Alessandra Codinha, Vogue, 27 June 2023
  • Jeremiah’s take on the provenance of man — titled The Story.
    — Christopher Mosley, Dallas News, 22 Feb. 2020
  • There’s a question about the provenance of some of the ballots, and others clearly run afoul of Iowa law.
    — Rich Lowry, National Review, 26 Mar. 2021
  • Once mainly the provenance of the US, killer drones have now spread widely to both state and non-state actors.
    — Joshua Keating, Vox, 18 Sep. 2024
  • The provenance of the object, the officials said, is still unknown.
    — New York Times, 3 June 2021
  • But lawyers for one of the group’s alleged supporters, Ralf Wohlleben, sought to challenge the provenance of a gun used in most of the killings.
    — Washington Post, 13 Mar. 2018
  • As Barron's noted, investors may have to wait until mid-November, when the company files its 13-F for the third quarter, to discover the provenance of the mystery stocks.
    — Hugh Cameron, MSNBC Newsweek, 12 Aug. 2025
  • The authors examined 40 bone samples and 31 teeth from the two sites to uncover clues to diet, social background (like infant and child-rearing practices), and provenance of the individual remains.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 21 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'provenance.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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