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tribe

tribe

12 8.6
A rank in biology between genus and subfamily used to group related animals or plants
  • noun
  • /traɪb/
  • Specialized
translation icon : tribu
  • So every tribe is geographically distributed across all of Attica in this way.
  • belong to the tribe
  • tribe members

Examples

  • All three of these tribes.

    Academic text (2018)
  • As for the southern tribes, they are quicker to celebrate a wedding to choose sides in the war.

  • Benji was telling me about this documentary he saw about a tribe of monkeys.

  • As a result, the Yamnayas and related tribes were far more mobile than most and controlled a larger territory than their numbers might have suggested.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • That's very, very rare since the tribe is now extinct.

  • I was watching this documentary on cable about this tribe of monkeys in Somalia.

  • All this is assuming females tolerated males in the tribe at all.

    Blog text (24)
  • The old males in Imo's tribe of Japanese macaques never did learn to wash their food; it was young colleagues who learned.

    Academic text (1995)
  • We had treated 1,130 people from three tribes and were transporting four patients, including a baby, to Nairobi, Kenya, for surgery.

    Blog text (13)
  • Scientists have classified the new species of frog into a distinct tribe known for its unique mating rituals.

Idioms

7.3

To discover a group of people who share your interests and make you feel at home

Your attitude and energy bring similar people into your life

Compounds

A group of people who live by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants

A group from ancient Israel who descend from Levi and serve in the temple

tribe Bubalus
  • Specialized
9.9

A group of animals that includes water buffalo and their close relatives

How Specific

species
  • Specialized
905 2.7
genus
3 7.5
subtribe
  • Specialized
8.9
tribe
  • Specialized
12 8.6
family
  • Specialized
155 4.0
order
  • Specialized
66 7.5
class
1.8

Surface Forms

tribe singular
tribes plural

Etymology

Tribe is also used in biology and comes from the old Latin tribus 'division', so scientists borrowed the word to name a group of related plants or animals that sits between larger and smaller categories. This use keeps the basic idea of a 'group'.