What does "paper rejected provisionally" mean? I submitted a paper to a prestigious control journal. The editor provided the following review:


  The decision is that your contribution cannot be accepted for publication in [the journal] in its present form. It needs substantial revision in order to possibly become publishable. Overall the decision is paper rejected provisionally. 


The editor has invited me to revise and resubmit. 

Is "paper rejected provisionally" equivalent to "major revision" ?

Will you advise me to politely inquire the editor about it so that there is no confusion. I mean before revising I want to be sure that there is some chance that the paper can be accepted if I incorporate the reviewer's comments.
I've seen language like this before as well, and feel that it is unnecessarily confusing. Usually, what I have found is that it's effectively equivalent to "Major Revision."  Here is a good heuristic for distinguishing:


If they give you a date that they'd like to see the revised version by, then it's equivalent to "Major Revision." 
If they don't give you a date, then you've been rejected, but they really are inviting you to submit a better version when you are ready.