Definition of: tribe

(trīb) noun
1. A division, class, or group of people, varying ethnologically according to the circumstances from which their separation or distinction is supposed to originate.
2. Among primitive peoples, a group or aggregation of persons, usually consanguineous and endogamous, under one chief, characterized by its own culture, and having a name, a dialect, a government, and usually a territory of its own: Kaffir tribes.
3. In ancient states, an ethnic, hereditary, or political division of a united people: the tribes of Athens or of Israel.
4. A division of freeholders with a right to vote in certain of the ancient Roman councils. The Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans probably represented primitive clan divisions, to which Servius Tullius added a fourth when making his territorial division of Rome. Outside the city the spread of tribal organizations was coincident with the founding of new colonies.
5. A number of persons of any class or profession taken together: often derogatory or contemptuous: the theatrical tribe.
6. Biol. A group of plants or animals of indefinite rank.
7. Among stockbreeders, the descendants of a particular female bearer through females. See synonyms under PEOPLE. [Fusion of OF tribu (<L tribus a tribe) and L tribus]
—tri′bal adjective
—tri′bal·ly adverb