# tribal

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈtɹaɪbəl/ · frequency rank #6,849

## Definitions
1. Of or relating to tribes.
2. Based on or organized according to tribes.
3. Phylogenic.
4. Incorporating designs or styles typical of an indigenous people.

## 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.

## Easily confused with
- **tribe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tribal-vs-tribe)
- **trill** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tribal-vs-trill)
- **tubal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tribal-vs-tubal)
- **tribes** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tribal-vs-tribes)
- **trivial** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tribal-vs-trivial)
- **tribunal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tribal-vs-tribunal)
- **trial** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trial-vs-tribal)
- **tidal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tidal-vs-tribal)
- **triad** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/triad-vs-tribal)
- **trials** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trials-vs-tribal)

## Common misspellings (9)
`rtibal`, `tirbal`, `trbial`, `triabl`, `triball`, `tribbal`, `tribla`, `trribal`, `ttribal`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/tribal