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# tribal

«tribal» in Mova's school dictionary: **Belonging to a tribe – a group of families or communities…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (tribal)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Belonging to a tribe – a group of families or communities who share ancestors, language, customs and often land, with their own leaders. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tribal/#m1)

2) Showing strong loyalty to your own group and dislike of others: «tribal football fans». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tribal/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In history and geography lessons we learn about tribal peoples in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific; many Native American nations and Aboriginal and Māori groups prefer their own names («nation», «iwi», «mob»). «Tribal» can be used respectfully about traditions, but old books sometimes used it in a looking-down way, which is wrong. Phrases: «tribal lands», «tribal art», «tribal leaders».

### examples

- The museum showed tribal art from many parts of Africa. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tribal/#x1)
- Tribal elders met to decide what to do. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tribal/#x2)
- Many tribal lands were taken by settlers in the past. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tribal/#x3)
- Football fans can be very tribal about their team. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tribal/#x4)
- The tribal dance told the story of the first people. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tribal/#x5)
- Māori groups called iwi have their own lands and leaders. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tribal/#x6)
- This is an essentially Indian trait; almost all Hindus have some tribal or caste mark on their bodies or faces. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tribal/#x7)

### note

Adjective only; the noun is «tribe». Be respectful: call peoples by their own names when you can, and avoid using «tribal» to mean «primitive» – that idea is wrong.

### In the corpora

- [The ladies fill the poor man's hair with mud, bang the tribal drums and call every chief of the Tribe.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/85-justso-first-letter-2-the-whole-tribe-comes/7/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «tribal» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tribal/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.