Meaning & use
tribe
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Meanings
nouncountable
A community of connected families or clans that share an ancestry, a culture and usually a language, and often recognize common leaders.
Grammar: Takes a singular or plural verb in British English when the group is meant: the tribe is or the tribe are.
Patterns
- a member of a tribe
- the tribe of something
Each summer the tribe moved its herds to higher pastures.
Elders of the tribe met to settle the dispute.
Anthropologists spent a year living among a small tribe in the rainforest.
nouncountableinformalfigurative
A group of people who share a strong interest, background or way of life and feel they belong together.
Grammar: Used figuratively for modern groups: the running tribe.
Patterns
- find your tribe
- a tribe of something
After years in a new city she finally found her tribe at the climbing gym.
The hikers form a friendly tribe that meets every Sunday.
Online, the game has built a loyal tribe of fans.
nouncountablebiologytechnical
In biological classification, a rank of living things placed between a family and a genus.
Grammar: Used in scientific writing about taxonomy.
Patterns
- the tribe of something
The sunflower belongs to a tribe within the daisy family.
Botanists moved the species into a different tribe.
Wolves and foxes are placed in separate tribes in some classifications.
Word forms
| plural | tribes |
|---|
Common combinations
- a nomadic tribe
- A nomadic tribe herded camels across the desert.
- tribe member
- Every tribe member was invited to the gathering.
- tribe leader
- The tribe leader greeted the visiting researchers.
- find your tribe
- It took a while, but I found my tribe at the book club.
- an indigenous tribe
- The film follows an indigenous tribe fighting for its land.
- a tribe of children
- A tribe of children ran through the garden.
Synonyms and how they differ
- clan
- A clan is a group within a larger society that shares one ancestor, whereas a tribe can include several clans.
- community
- Community is a neutral modern word for any group living together and is often preferred when talking about Indigenous peoples.
- people
- As in the Navajo people, people names a whole nation or ethnic group without the sense of a small kin-based society.
- group
- Group is a general word for any collection of people, but tribe suggests deeper belonging and shared identity.
Word family
Commonly confused: tribe or tribute?
tribe vs tribute
A tribute is a sign of respect or a payment, and is unrelated in meaning to tribe, though both come from the same Latin root.
Practice
After moving abroad, Mia joined a pottery class and quickly found her ______ of friends who loved the same things.
Choose one answer.
Find your tribe is a modern expression for finding people who share your interests. Tribute is a sign of respect, a tribunal is a court, and a trial is a test.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tribe”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.