- An example of a tribe is the dead heads who followed the Grateful Dead.
- An example of a tribe is the Choctaw American Indians.
The definition of a tribe is a group of people, or a community with similar values or interests, a group with a common ancestor, or a common leader.
- esp. among preliterate peoples, a group of persons, families, or clans believed to be descended from a common ancestor and forming a close community under a leader, or chief
- a group of this kind having recognized ancestry; specif.,
- any of the three divisions of the ancient Romans, traditionally of Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan origin
- any of the later political and territorial divisions of the ancient Romans
- any of the phylae of ancient Greece
- any of the twelve divisions of the ancient Israelites
- any group of people having the same occupation, habits, ideas, etc.: often in a somewhat derogatory sense: the tribe of drama critics
- a taxonomic category that is a subdivision of a subfamily of plants or animals and consists of several closely related genera
- a natural group of plants or animals classified together without regard for their taxonomic relations
- in stock breeding, the animals descended from the same female through the female line
- Informal a family, esp. a large one
Origin of tribeMiddle English trybe ; from Classical Latin tribus, one of the three groups into which Romans were origin, originally divided, tribe ; from tri- (see tri-) + Indo-European an unverified form bh?- ; from base an unverified form bheu-, to grow, flourish from source be
- 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.
- A political, ethnic, or ancestral division of ancient states and cultures, especially:a. Any of the three divisions of the ancient Romans, namely, the Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan.b. Any of the 12 divisions of ancient Israel.c. A phyle of ancient Greece.
- A group of people sharing an occupation, interest, or habit: a tribe of graduate students.
- Informal A large family.
- Biology A taxonomic category ranking below a family or subfamily and above a genus and usually containing several genera.
Origin of tribeMiddle English, from Old French tribu, from Latin tribus, division of the Roman people, perhaps of Etruscan origin or possibly from tri-, three; see trei- in Indo-European roots.
- A socially, ethnically, and politically cohesive group of people.
- (anthropology) A society larger than a band but smaller than a state.
- The collective noun for various animals.
- (taxonomy) A hierarchal rank between family and genus.
- (stock breeding) A family of animals descended from some particular female progenitor, through the female line.
- the Duchess tribe of shorthorns
(third-person singular simple present tribes, present participle tribing, simple past and past participle tribed)