A provitamin is a substance that may be converted within the body to a vitamin. The term "previtamin" is a synonym. For example, Provitamin B5 is a name for Panthenol, which may be converted in the body to Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5).
The term "provitamin" is used when it is desirable to label a substance with little or no vitamin activity, but which can be converted to an active form by normal metabolic processes. For example, "Provitamin A" is a name for Beta-Carotene, which has only about 1/6 the biological activity of Retinol (Vitamin A) -- the body converts Beta-Carotene to Retinol. In other contexts, both Beta-Carotene and Retinol are simply considered to be different forms (vitamers) of Vitamin A.