tribal

CEFRB2

/ˈtɹaɪbəl/

adjective · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Relating to a tribe or tribal society.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Based on or organized according to tribes.

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.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
3

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Of or relating to tribes.

  2. Incorporating designs or styles typical of an indigenous people.

noun

Extra meaning

  1. A design or image that has been influenced by indigenous peoples; especially such a tattoo.

More examples

In context

  • social order through tribal law

  • a tribal society

  • tribal history

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The blank village maintained its traditional way of life for centuries without outside influence.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

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.