A voivodeship (/ˈvɔɪvoʊdʃɪp/ VOY-vohd-ship; Polish: województwo [vɔjɛˈvut͡stfɔ] ; plural: województwa [vɔjɛˈvut͡stfa]) is the highest-level administrative division of Poland, corresponding to a province in many other countries. The term has been in use since the 14th century and is commonly translated into English as "province".
The Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998, which went into effect on 1 January 1999, reduced the number of voivodeships to sixteen. These 16 replaced the 49 former voivodeships that had existed from 1 July 1975, and bear a greater resemblance (in territory, but not in name) to the voivodeships that existed between 1950 and 1975.