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tribal

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Incorporating designs or styles typical of an indigenous people.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

trybuhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtɹaɪbəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Relating to or characteristic of a tribe

  2. Of or relating to tribes.

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

  4. Based on or organized according to tribes.

noun

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

  2. india

    A member of a tribe.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Relating to or characteristic of a tribe

Used this way, tribal is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use tribal

  • “The tribal council made important decisions for their community.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Relating

tribal life

Incorporating / design

tribal peoples

Other combinations

tribal societytribal counciltribal leaderstribal populationtribal organizationtribal government

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • tribal chiefnounCompound term

    The head of a tribe or clan.

  • tribal sheiknounCompound term

    The leader of an Arab village or family.

  • tribal sheikhnounCompound term

    The leader of an Arab village or family.

  • tribal societynounCompound term

    A society with the social organization of a tribe.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.