adj
Meaning 1
Of or relating to tribes.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- social order through tribal law
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
tribal
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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UK, US: /ˈtɹaɪbəl/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -aɪbəl
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CMU ARPABET: T R AY1 B AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adj
Meaning 2
Based on or organized according to tribes.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- a tribal society
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Meaning 3
Phylogenic.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: historical, rare
Qualifier: theory of recapitulation
Topics: biology, natural-sciences
Examples
- tribal history
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Meaning 4
Incorporating designs or styles typical of an indigenous people.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- tribal techno music
- a purse with a tribal design
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
A design or image that has been influenced by indigenous peoples; especially such a tattoo.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
A member of a tribe.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: India
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective
Meaning 7
relating to or characteristic of a tribe
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- tribal customs
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
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.
Across languages
Translations
36 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Arabic: قَبَلِيّ (qabaliyy) — of or relating to tribes
- Arabic: قَبَلي (gabali) — of or relating to tribes
- Arabic: قَبيلي (gabīli) — of or relating to tribes
- Belarusian: племянны́ (pljemjanný) — of or relating to tribes
- Bulgarian: пле́менен (plémenen) — of or relating to tribes
- Catalan: tribal — of or relating to tribes
- Dutch: stam- — of or relating to tribes
- Dutch: stammen- — of or relating to tribes
- Dutch: tribaal — of or relating to tribes
- Esperanto: triba — of or relating to tribes
- French: tribal — of or relating to tribes
- Galician: tribal — of or relating to tribes
- German: Stammes- — of or relating to tribes
- Greek: φυλετικός (fyletikós) — of or relating to tribes
- Hebrew: שִׁבְטִי (shivtí) — of or relating to tribes
- Hungarian: törzsi — of or relating to tribes
- Italian: tribale — of or relating to tribes
- Latin: gentilicius — of or relating to tribes
- Latin: tribālis — of or relating to tribes
- Macedonian: племенски (plemenski) — of or relating to tribes
- Portuguese: tribal — of or relating to tribes
- Romanian: tribal — of or relating to tribes
- Russian: племенно́й (plemennój) — of or relating to tribes
- Serbo-Croatian: plȅmenskī — of or relating to tribes
- Spanish: tribal — of or relating to tribes
- Swedish: stam- — of or relating to tribes
- Ukrainian: племінни́й (pleminnýj) — of or relating to tribes
- Volapük: tribütik — of or relating to tribes
- Catalan: tribal — based on or organized according to tribes
- Galician: tribal — based on or organized according to tribes
- Greek: φυλετικός (fyletikós) — based on or organized according to tribes
- Latin: tribālis — based on or organized according to tribes
- Portuguese: tribal — based on or organized according to tribes
- Romanian: tribal — based on or organized according to tribes
- Russian: племенно́й (plemennój) — based on or organized according to tribes
- Spanish: tribal — based on or organized according to tribes
Real reading context