- esp. among preliterate peoples, a group of persons, families, or clans believed to be descended from a common ancestor and forming a close community under a leader, or chief
- a group of this kind having recognized ancestry; specif.,
- any of the three divisions of the ancient Romans, traditionally of Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan origin
- any of the later political and territorial divisions of the ancient Romans
- any of the phylae of ancient Greece
- any of the twelve divisions of the ancient Israelites
- any group of people having the same occupation, habits, ideas, etc.: often in a somewhat derogatory sense: the tribe of drama critics
- a taxonomic category that is a subdivision of a subfamily of plants or animals and consists of several closely related genera
- a natural group of plants or animals classified together without regard for their taxonomic relations
- in stock breeding, the animals descended from the same female through the female line
- Informal a family, esp. a large one
Origin of tribe
Middle English trybe from Classical Latin tribus, one of the three groups into which Romans were origin, originally divided, tribe from tri- (see tri-) + Indo-European an unverified form bh?- from base an unverified form bheu-, to grow, flourish from source be
