Meaning & use
tribalism
Last updated
Strong loyalty to one's own tribe, group, or party, often accompanied by hostility toward other groups.
See it in a sentence
Political tribalism has made compromise increasingly rare in modern legislatures.
The anthropologist studied tribalism as a social structure in traditional societies.
A note on using this word
Increasingly used in modern commentary to describe partisan loyalty and in-group/out-group behavior, beyond its original anthropological sense.
Words with a similar meaning
factionalismsectarianism
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Words with an opposite meaning
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