Definition of TRIBAL

tribal

Plural: tribals

Adjective

  • Relating to a tribe or its distinct customs and characteristics.
  • relating to or characteristic of a tribe
    • "tribal customs"

Adj

  • Of or relating to tribes.
  • Based on or organized according to tribes.
  • Phylogenic.

Noun

  • A design or image that has been influenced by indigenous peoples; especially such a tattoo.
  • A member of a tribe.

Examples

  • a tribal society
  • Playing "TRIBAL" across the triple word score felt like a declaration of linguistic heritage.
  • social order through tribal law
  • tribal history

Origin / 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.

Scrabble Score: 8

tribal: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
tribal: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
tribal: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 10

tribal: valid Words With Friends Word