tribe
/tɹaɪb/
"tribe" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tribe” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,923 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,923
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An ethnic group larger than a band or clan (and which may contain clans) but smaller than a nation (and which in turn may constitute a nation with other tribes). The tribe is often the basis of eth...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tribe |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tɹaɪb/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #5,923 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tribe” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tribe is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tɹaɪb/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,923 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for tribe, with forms such as "rtibe", "tirbe", and "trbie". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "true", "trip", "tube", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *tréyes From Middle English tribe, tribu, from Old French tribu, from Latin tribus. Doublet of tribus. The correct English form is tribe, spelled T-R-I-B-E.
Definition
- 1An ethnic group larger than a band or clan (and which may contain clans) but smaller than a nation (and which in turn may constitute a nation with other tribes). The tribe is often the basis of ethnic identity.
- 2A tribal nation or people.
- 3A nation or people considered culturally primitive, as may be the case in Africa, Australia or Native America.
- 4A socially cohesive group of people within a society.
- 5A class or group of things.
- 6A group of apes who live and work together.
- 7A hierarchical rank between family and genus.
- 8A group of affiliated Mardi Gras Indians.
- 9The collective noun for various animals.
- 10A family of animals descended from some particular female progenitor, through the female line.
Etymology
PIE word *tréyes From Middle English tribe, tribu, from Old French tribu, from Latin tribus. Doublet of tribus.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: rtibe,tirbe,trbie,tribbe,trieb,trribe,ttribe
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tribe - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “tribe”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-R-I-B-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /tɹaɪb/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “true” - see the side-by-side comparison. tribe vs true
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.