Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A large citizens' organization based on kinship, constituting the largest political subdivision of an ancient Greek city-state.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In ancient Greece, a tribe or clan; one of the subdivisions normally based on ties of blood, of which the aggregate constituted a community.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A local division of the people in ancient Athens; a clan; a tribe.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun historical A local division of the people in ancient Athens; a clan; a tribe.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a tribe of ancient Athenians

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek phūlē, tribe, phyle; see bheuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

New Latin, from Ancient Greek, a body of men united by ties of blood or habitation.

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Examples

  • Most of the Lunarians wore ordinary garments, although their styles of it-upward-flared collars, short cloaks, dagged skirts, pectoral sunbursts, insignia of phyle or family, colors, iridescences, inset glitterlights, details more fanciful still-would have been florid were it not as natural on them as brilliance on a coral snake.

    The Stars Are Also Fire Anderson, Poul, 1926-2001 1994

  • Jealousy, that Lilisaire wanted Kenmuir and not him, though Kenmuir was an alien employee and Valanndray kin to her, a member of her phyle?

    The Stars Are Also Fire Anderson, Poul, 1926-2001 1994

  • Most of the Lunarians wore ordinary garments, although their styles of it-upward-flared collars, short cloaks, dagged skirts, pectoral sunbursts, insignia of phyle or family, colors, iridescences, inset glitterlights, details more fanciful still-would have been florid were it not as natural on them as brilliance on a coral snake.

    The Stars Are Also Fire Anderson, Poul, 1926-2001 1994

  • Niolente presumably meant to reveal her design at the right moment, under the right circumstances, which would give Luna the advantage she was working for, with her and her phyle in firm control of it.

    The Stars Are Also Fire Anderson, Poul, 1926-2001 1994

  • Niolente presumably meant to reveal her design at the right moment, under the right circumstances, which would give Luna the advantage she was working for, with her and her phyle in firm control of it.

    The Stars Are Also Fire Anderson, Poul, 1926-2001 1994

  • In their Heroic Age the Greeks were fighting in phyle and phratry, the Germanic peoples in tribes and kinship-groups, and the ancient Scots in their clans, each of which could be identified by special insignia during the greater collective military expeditions.

    Conflict and The Web of Group-Affiliations Georg Simmel 1956

  • In their Heroic Age the Greeks were fighting in phyle and phratry, the Germanic peoples in tribes and kinship-groups, and the ancient Scots in their clans, each of which could be identified by special insignia during the greater collective military expeditions.

    Conflict and The Web of Group-Affiliations Georg Simmel 1956

  • In their Heroic Age the Greeks were fighting in phyle and phratry, the Germanic peoples in tribes and kinship-groups, and the ancient Scots in their clans, each of which could be identified by special insignia during the greater collective military expeditions.

    Conflict and The Web of Group-Affiliations Georg Simmel 1956

  • When you chose to condemn the ten generals, my phyle supplied the Prytanes, and I alone stood out against you.

    The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics Various 1910

  • Phone ring tones towhead is a improvised phyle, but if you try your walbiri and cattle your pudginess puckishly bokmal they may oppositeness the somewhat aegospotami in the end.

    Rational Review 2009

Comments

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  • 'single phyle' is a strange oxymoron!

    February 25, 2012

  • Ha, @[fbharjo, well played. The only downside is that no one will get it if you say it aloud.

    February 25, 2012