tribe definition

English tribe definition

Etymology

From Middle English tribe, tribu, from Old French tribu, from Latin tribus. Doublet of tribus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɹaɪb/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪb

Noun

tribe (plural tribes)

1. (history, anthropology) An ethnic group larger than a band or clan (and which may contain clans) but smaller than a nation (and which in turn may be contained within a nation). The tribe is often the basis of ethnic identity.

   the Twelve Tribes of Israel Germanic tribes Celtic tribes

   The Formation of Kazakh Identity: From Tribe to Nation-state

2. (synecdoche) A tribal nation or people.
3. (derogatory) A nation or people in an area considered culturally primitive, such as Africa, Australia or Native America.
4. A socially cohesive group of people within a society.
   • 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 26:

     The thought of spending a year in close company with twitchers chilled me to the core. Not that I have anything against them, I am terribly fond of the members of the tribe, it is just that basically, they are a bunch of obsessive freaks.

5. A class or group of things.
   • 1972, Carol A. Nemeyer, Scholarly Reprint Publishing in the United States, New York, N.Y.: R. R. Bowker Co., →ISBN, page 7:

     In 1968, estimates of the number of active reprint publishers ranged from about 20 to 100 publishers. The fact that almost 300 U.S. reprint publishers have been identified is evidence that the reprint tribe continues to increase.

6. (zoology) A group of apes who live and work together.
7. (taxonomy) A hierarchal rank between family and genus.
8. A group of affiliated Mardi Gras Indians.
9. The collective noun for various animals.
10. (stock breeding) A family of animals descended from some particular female progenitor, through the female line.

    the Duchess tribe of shorthorns

Synonyms

• (taxonomy): tribus

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

tribe (third-person singular simple present tribes, present participle tribing, simple past and past participle tribed)

1. (transitive) To distribute into tribes or classes; to categorize.
   • 1696-1699, William Nicolson, English Historical Library

     Our fowl, fish, and quadruped are well tribed.

See also

• ethnic
• Appendix:English collective nouns

Anagrams

• Berti, Breit, Tiber, biter, rebit

Middle English tribe definition

Alternative forms

• trybe, tribu

Etymology

From Old French tribu, from Latin tribus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtriːb(ə)/, /ˈtriːbu/

Noun

tribe (plural tribus)

1. One of the twelve tribes of Israel.
2. (rare) Any tribe or kin group.
3. (rare) A league or grouping.

Descendants

• English: tribe

References

• “trībe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-12-03.