Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A unit of sociopolitical organization consisting of a number of families, clans, or other groups who share a common ancestry and culture and among whom leadership is typically neither formalized nor permanent.
- n. A political, ethnic, or ancestral division of ancient states and cultures, especially:
- n. Any of the three divisions of the ancient Romans, namely, the Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan.
- n. Any of the 12 divisions of ancient Israel.
- n. A phyle of ancient Greece.
- n. A group of people sharing an occupation, interest, or habit: a tribe of graduate students.
- n. Informal A large family.
- n. Biology A taxonomic category placed between a subfamily and a genus or between a suborder and a family and usually containing several genera.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In Roman history, one of the three patrician orders, or original political divisions of the people of ancient Rome, the Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres, representing respectively, according to tradition, the separate Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan settlements, having at their union equal representation in the senate, and retaining their distinctive names for several centuries.
- n. Any one of the similar divisions of a race or nation common in antiquity, whether of natural or of political origin: as, the tribes (
φυλαι ) of Athens. Ethnical tribes among the ancients regarded themselves as enlarged families, and generally bore the name of some real or supposed common progenitor. Such were the twelve tribes of the Israelites, the tribes of the Dorians and other Greek races, etc. The thirty (and afterward more) tribes into which the plebeians in and around Rome were divided, after the formation of the patrician tribes, were based on locality; and tribes nearly corresponding to castes have in some instances been determined by occupation. - n. Specifically, a division of a barbarous race of people, usually distinguishable in some way from their congeners, united into a community under a recognized head or chief, ruling either independently or subordinately. In general the tribe, as it still exists among the American Indians and many African and Asiatic races, is the earliest form of political organization, nations being ultimately constituted by their gradual amalgamation and loss of identity in the progress of civilization.
- n. Any class or body of persons taken collectively; any aggregate of individuals of a kind, either as a united body or as distinguished by some common characteristic or occupation.
- n. A family of cattle having a common female ancestor. Tribes of cattle are particular strains, taking their names usually from some particular cow appearing in the pedigrees, as the Princess or Duchess tribes of shorthorns. There is no absolute rule for naming a tribe, but it descends through the female line.
- n. In zoology and botany, a classificatory group of uncertain taxonomic rank, above a genus, and usually below an order; loosely, any group or series of animals: as, the furry, feathery, or finny tribes; the cat tribe. Linnæus distributed the vegetable kingdom into three tribes, namely monocotyledonous, dicotyledonous, and acotyledonous plants, and these he subdivided into gentes or nations. By other naturalists tribe has been used for a division of animals or plants intermediate between order and genus. In botany this is the current and a very common use, the tribe standing below the suborder where that division is present. Cuvier divided his orders into families, and his families into tribes, including under the latter one or more genera.
- To distribute into tribes or classes.
Wiktionary
- n. A socially, ethnically, and politically cohesive group of people.
- n. anthropology A society larger than a band but smaller than a state.
- n. The collective noun for various animals.
- n. taxonomy A hierarchal rank between family and genus.
- v. transitive To distribute into tribes or classes; to categorize.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A family, race, or series of generations, descending from the same progenitor, and kept distinct, as in the case of the twelve tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of Jacob.
- n. (Bot.) A number of species or genera having certain structural characteristics in common.
- n. A nation of savages or uncivilized people; a body of rude people united under one leader or government.
- n. A division, class, or distinct portion of a people, from whatever cause that distinction may have originated.
- n. (Stock Breeding) A family of animals descended from some particular female progenitor, through the female line.
- v. rare To distribute into tribes or classes.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (biology) a taxonomic category between a genus and a subfamily
- n. a social division of (usually preliterate) people
- n. a federation (as of American Indians)
- n. group of people related by blood or marriage
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old French tribu, from Latin tribus. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French tribu, from Latin tribus, division of the Roman people, perhaps of Etruscan origin or possibly from tri-, three. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Economy was a part of her nature, and besides that she meant to show them that she was perfectly independent of the whole tribe; the _tribe_ and _them_ referring to the hired girls alone, for she knew no one else in town.”
“TREABHACH, pertaitiing to a tribe, or family; or one of the fame tribe*”
“But I was using the term tribe the way she seems to.”
“I can trust that my tribe is alive and well, and will forgive me (even love me for) my imperfections.”
“Tribal Council 1: The Floor: "This tribe is all about winning," said Marty, oblivious to the fact that this tribe is all about getting him out.”
The Huffington Post: Tallulah Morehead: Survivor 21: Infants vs. Senior Citizens : Spinning Marty
“Airportman said that in Hsiaoliin village, the Siraya tribe is almost vanished; now everything is buried in the mud: the temples, the Daman tribe culture and the night ceremony the tribe tried to revive in the past few decades.”
Global Voices in English » Taiwan: The future for the aboriginal people after Typhoon Morakot
“The inability to conquer this tribe is a pox upon the Romans, and with Caesar getting more impatient, Centurion Crismus Bonus demands to know the secret behind the Gauls strengths.”
Retro Review: Asterix The Gaul | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News
“They just have a limited view of how big their tribe is and certain ideas of how zero sum the world is.”
Matthew Yglesias » Ethnocentrism and Small Government Hypocrisy
“But beware: the opinion of the tribe is always evolving.”
“Because we are so connected to what we call our tribe -- the licensed skin care professionals who give treatments and prescribe products -- we have a unique sensitivity to its needs and the needs of their clients.”
Felicia C. Sullivan: Interview: Entrepreneur Jane Wurwand, CEO of Dermalogica
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tribe’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
wrath, leaf, belly, prey, death, break, six, nod, dim, end, inn, judge and 1286 more...
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Groups
Words synonymous with 'group.'
congregation, crowd, gaggle, flock, clique, bunch, cluster, herd, mass, mob, multitude, organization and 118 more...
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animal group
Names for Groups of Animals.
clever madeupicals and human groups are fine.
( open list, randomness )
also see:
swarm, herd, flock, group, pack, school, shoal, click, gang, army, colony, tribe and 63 more... -
Costa Vida
The Costal Life
surf, carve, tubular, rip curl, curl, froth, floater, tweak, wafting, off the wall, pocket, rad and 39 more...
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Congregation
Clusters, gatherings, and groups of humans.
alliance, circle, council, federation, fraternity, league, assembly, company, group, flock, crowd, mob and 99 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Prosie: Obama's Inaugural Address
In keeping with my other Prosies (like this one). There were a number of phrases as well as words in this speech that I found particularly compelling.
My fellow citizens: I stand here ...we did not turn b..., when we were tested, what storms may come, icy currents, virtue, hope, alarmed, depth of winter, revolution, snow, enemy, abandoned and 257 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Poetrie: "For I Will Consider My Cat ...
An excerpt from Jubilate Agno, written by Christopher Smart between 1759 and 1763 during his confinement for "lunacy" at St. Luke's Hospital in Bethnal Green, London.
For I will...consider, cat, jeoffry, servant, living god, duly, worship, wreathing, elegant quickness, leaps up, musk, blessing and 145 more...
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ideas out loud
bandwagon, middle, via, web, fly, thru, safety, thor, swoosh, top, network effect, matrix and 200 more...
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astrosfan's Words
pantaloons, schadenfreude, astonishing, eve, static, freeze, luscious, voluptuous, stagnant, mimic, speed, vespertillinoid and 302 more...
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_mark's list
Words I like!
( personal list, favorite words, randomness )psy, nanobot, success, smack, vibration, microcosmic, springgraph, marksmanship, estranged, homoerotic, flex, fiasco and 1696 more...
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the hotlist
short, sweet, epic, catchy, sassy, sexy & sizzling.
( personal list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/...zing, epic, win, fail, hot, warp, times, clip, onyx, wonky, pwn, leet and 1493 more...
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trinity words
triumvir, tierce, sesterce, trinity, trammel, trephine, tercel, tercet, tertian, tricrotic, tritone, triad and 58 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tribe.

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