tribe

See also: Tribe

English

Etymology

PIE word
*tréyes

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. (zoology) A group of apes who live and work together.
6. (taxonomy) A hierarchal rank between family and genus.
7. The collective noun for various animals.
8. (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

• tribal
• tribalism
• tribalist
• tribalistic
• tribally
• tribelet

Translations

group of people

• Albanian: fis (sq) m
• Arabic: قَبِيلَة‎ (ar) f (qabīla), عَشِيرَة‎ (ar) f (ʕašīra)

  Egyptian Arabic: قوم‎ m (ʔōm)

  Hijazi Arabic: قَبِيلَة‎ f (gabīla)

• Armenian: ցեղ (hy) (cʿeł)
• Asturian: tribu f
• Azerbaijani: qəbilə (az), tayfa, qövm
• Bashkir: ҡәбилә (qäbilä)
• Belarusian: пле́мя n (pljémja), род m (rod)
• Bengali: উপজাতি (upojati)
• Bulgarian: пле́ме (bg) n (pléme), род (bg) m (rod)
• Burmese: အမျိုးအနွယ် (my) (a.myui:a.nwai), အမျိုးဇာတ် (my) (a.myui:jat)
• Catalan: tribu (ca) f
• Chechen: тукхам (tuqam)
• Chickasaw: okloshi'
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 部落 (zh) (bùluò), 部族 (zh) (bùzú)

• Crimean Tatar: qabile
• Czech: kmen (cs) m, rod (cs) m
• Danish: stamme c, folkestamme c
• Dutch: stam (nl) m
• Egyptian: (wḥyt f)
• Esperanto: tribo
• Estonian: hõim
• Farefare: buuri
• Faroese: ættarbólkur m (biblical), ættargrein f (biblical)
• Finnish: heimo (fi)
• French: tribu (fr) f
• Galician: tribo (gl) m
• Georgian: ტომი (ṭomi)
• German: Stamm (de) m, Volksstamm (de) m, Sippe (de) f, Volk (de) n, Völkchen (de) n, Völklein n, Sippschaft (de) f, (biology) Tribus (de) f, Völkerschaft (de) f
• Greek: φύλο (el) n (fýlo), φυλή (el) f (fylí)

  Ancient: φυλή f (phulḗ)

• Hebrew: שֵׁבֶט‎ (he) m (shévet)
• Hindi: जनजाति (hi) (janjāti)
• Hungarian: törzs (hu)
• Icelandic: ættkvísl (is) f
• Ido: tribuo (io)
• Indonesian: suku (id), suku bangsa
• Ingush: тукхам (tuqam)
• Interlingua: tribo
• Irish: treibh f
• Italian: tribù (it) f
• Japanese: 部族 (ja) (ぶぞく, buzoku), 民族 (ja) (みんぞく, minzoku)
• Kazakh: тайпа (taipa), ұлыс (ūlys)
• Khmer: កុលសម័្ពន្ធ (kolsampŏən)
• Korean: 겨레 (ko) (gyeore), 부족(部族) (ko) (bujok)
• Kumyk: эл (el)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: eşîr (ku)

• Kyrgyz: уруу (ky) (uruu), тукум (ky) (tukum), эл (ky) (el)
• Lao: ຊົນເຜົ່າ (lo) (son phao), ເຜົ່າ (phao)
• Latgalian: patauta
• Latin: tribus (la) f
• Latvian: cilts m
• Lithuanian: gentis m
• Macedonian: племе n (pleme)
• Malay: suku (ms), puak
• Manchu: ᠠᡳᠮᠠᠨ (aiman), ᠠᡳᠮᠠᠨ
  ᡥᠣᡴᡳ (aiman hoki)
• Maori: iwi, mātāwaka
• Mongolian: овог (mn) (ovog), аймаг (mn) (ajmag)
• Moore: buudu
• Nandi: em
• Ngazidja Comorian: kaɓila class 5/6
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: stamme (no) m, folkestamme m

  Nynorsk: stamme m or f, folkestamme m or f

• Occitan: tribú (oc)
• Old English: þēod
• Persian: قبیله‎ (fa) (qabile), عشیره‎ (fa) ('ašire), زند‎ (fa) (zand) (archaic)
• Polish: plemię (pl) n, ród (pl) m
• Portuguese: tribo (pt) f
• Romanian: trib (ro) n
• Russian: пле́мя (ru) n (plémja), род (ru) m (rod)
• Saterland Frisian: Stamme pl
• Scottish Gaelic: cinneadh m, seòrsa m, sliochd m, treubh f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пле̏ме n

  Roman: plȅme (sh) n

• Slovak: kmeň (sk) m, rod (sk) m
• Slovene: pleme (sl) n
• Somali: qabiil
• Spanish: tribu (es) f
• Sudovian: gintu
• Swahili: kabila (sw)
• Swedish: stam (sv) c
• Tagalog: tribo (tl)
• Tajik: қабила (qabila)
• Telugu: తెగ (te) (tega)
• Thai: เผ่า (th) (pào), ตระกูล (th) (dtrà-guun)
• Tibetan: སྡེ་རིགས (sde rigs)
• Tlingit: ḵwáan
• Turkish: boy (tr), kabile (tr)
• Turkmen: taýpa
• Ukrainian: пле́м'я n (plémʺja), рід m (rid)
• Urdu: قبیلہ‎ (qabīla), قوم‎ (ur) (qaum)
• Uyghur: قوۋم‎ (qowm)
• Uzbek: qabila (uz)
• Vietnamese: bộ lạc (vi) (部落), bộ tộc (vi)
• Volapük: tribüt (vo), (diminutive) tribütil, pöpatribüt
• Welsh: llwyth (cy) m, llwythau (cy) m pl
• Yiddish: שבֿט‎ m (sheyvet)
• Zazaki: eşîr

collective noun (see at the relevant animal entry)

• Swahili: kabila (sw)

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

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.