requiring effort or concentration; complex and not easy to answer or solve; "raised serious objections to the proposal"; "the plan has a serious flaw"
of great consequence; "marriage is a serious matter"
concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities; "a serious student of history"; "a serious attempt to learn to ski"; "gave me a serious look"; "a serious young man"; "are you serious or joking?"; "Don't be so serious!"
(Roman Catholic Church) an official in charge of an ecclesiastical province acting under the superior general of a religious order; "the general of the Jesuits receives monthly reports from the provincials"
characteristic of the provinces or their people; "deeply provincial and conformist"; "in that well-educated company I felt uncomfortably provincial"; "narrow provincial attitudes"
of or associated with a province; "provincial government"
based on or manifesting objectively defined standards of rightness or morality; "principled pragmatism and unprincipled expediency"; "a principled person"