Tribal Meaning
/ˈtɹaɪbəl/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjOf or relating to tribes.
adjBased on or organized according to tribes.
Sentence Examples
Imagine, for the sake of argument, a tribal group in which mother-son incest was countenanced.
The tribal wise man shared his knowledge with all the young.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ village maintained its traditional way of life for centuries without outside influence.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The museum features an interesting exhibition of ____ art from many different regions of the world this year today.
Word Origin & History
From Latin tribālis. By surface analysis, tribe + -al, first attested in the 1630s. The specific adjectival sense under the defunct theory of recapitulation derives from tribal history as an overly literal learned borrowing from German Stammesgeschichte; ordinarily, Stamm would only be translated as tribe when used in its ethnographic sense.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"‘What has he done?’ ‘Oh, killed a few natives. That wouldn’t count so much if it was all ‘tribal’; but he’s ‘gone cheeky’ and threatens wholesale murder. My job is to grab him before he slaughters more.’"
— 1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 46:
"This right had been accepted by relative tribals but misobeyed and effaced by non-tribals and foreign peasants."
— 1983, Human Science: Journal of the Anthropological Survey of India, page 141:
"[…] the legendary Adivasi leader Jaipal Singh Munda who came to represent the tribals not just of his native plateau, but also of all of India […]"
— 2018, Vaijayanta Anand, Geeta Balakrishnan, Purnima George, Community Practices in India: Lessons from the Grassroots, page 66:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ village maintained its traditional way of life for centuries without outside influence.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The museum features an interesting exhibition of ____ art from many different regions of the world this year today.