tribal
/ˈtɹaɪbəl/adjective, noun
tribal is spelled T-R-I-B-A-L: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,784th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, tribal means “Of or relating to tribes” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in tribal?
| Letters | 6: T-R-I-B-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,784th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is tribal?
Tribal appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,784th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce tribal?
- US /ˈtɹaɪbəl/
Tribal has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-tribal.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with tribal?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as tribal from its last stressed vowel (/aɪbəl/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of tribal
- more tribal comparative
- most tribal superlative
- tribals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tribal mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of or relating to tribes.
social order through tribal law
- 2
Based on or organized according to tribes.
a tribal society
- 3
rarePhylogenic.
tribal history
- 4
Incorporating designs or styles typical of an indigenous people.
tribal techno music
noun
- 1
A design or image that has been influenced by indigenous peoples; especially such a tattoo.
- 2
IndiaA member of a tribe.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Tribal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense of or relating to tribes:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does tribal come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).