- (sometimes offensive) a social group in a traditional society consisting of people with the same language, culture, religion, etc., living in a particular area and often having one leader known as a chief Because this word can be offensive, it is better to only use it if you are sure that the group of people is correctly referred to as a tribe. You can use the words community or people instead.
- They were a nomadic horse-riding tribe.
Extra ExamplesTopics People in societyb2- The dancers are all members of the Tembu tribe.
- They recruited the toughest soldiers from the desert tribes.
- We spoke to Umbara, the headman of the Ywin tribe.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- aboriginal
- indigenous
- native
- …
- belong to
- a member of a tribe
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural-sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app. Try it for free as part of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.
- (usually disapproving) a group or class of people, especially of one profession
- He had a sudden outburst against the whole tribe of actors.
- (biology) a group of related animals or plants
- a tribe of cats
- (informal or humorous) a large family
- One or two of the grandchildren will be there, but not the whole tribe.
Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French tribu or Latin tribus (singular and plural); perhaps related to tri- ‘three’ and referring to the three divisions of the early people of Rome.
Check pronunciation:
tribe