as in ethnic
of, relating to, or reflecting the traits exhibited by a group of people with a common ancestry and culture
a tribal solidarity that transcends all other loyalties or bonds
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of tribal
Over several years, Spiro and his wife, Arabella, have worked with Parisian gallerist Lucas Ratton to build their African tribal-art assemblage.
—
Jill Newman, Robb Report, 19 Oct. 2025
The people who work on grants to tribal colleges and historically Black colleges and universities were also let go, just weeks after the administration rerouted $495 million in grant funding to those schools.
—Arkansas Online, 19 Oct. 2025
This includes a Mescalero Apache tribal member who was pulled out of a store and asked for his passport, and a California man who was previously deported by mistake and got another deportation order in the mail.
—Nicole Foy, ProPublica, 18 Oct. 2025
Drum patterns that almost sounded tribal backed up Badu’s scatting, as the song moved to the next.
—Demicia Inman, VIBE.com, 17 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tribal
Jill Newman, Robb Report, 19 Oct. 2025
The people who work on grants to tribal colleges and historically Black colleges and universities were also let go, just weeks after the administration rerouted $495 million in grant funding to those schools.
—Arkansas Online, 19 Oct. 2025
This includes a Mescalero Apache tribal member who was pulled out of a store and asked for his passport, and a California man who was previously deported by mistake and got another deportation order in the mail.
—Nicole Foy, ProPublica, 18 Oct. 2025
Drum patterns that almost sounded tribal backed up Badu’s scatting, as the song moved to the next.
—Demicia Inman, VIBE.com, 17 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tribal
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tribal
Adjective
-
In 1999, a nearly three-month NATO bombing campaign ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.—
Chris Massaro,
FOXNews.com,
25 Oct. 2025
-
What’s more, after the Velvet Revolution of 1989, Czechs who had their property seized by the state were allowed to reclaim much of it through a restitution system – but not ethnic Germans who lost it under the post-war Benes decrees.—
Will Tizard,
Variety,
25 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
And an even larger proportion of the same segment of American society, even those willing to contemplate the abolition of slavery, could not imagine a post-emancipation America of racial equality as anything but a nightmare.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Oct. 2025
-
Major disaprities in prescription rates run across racial, economic and geographic boundaries, April 2025 research found, even to the point some Americans are cooking their own GLP-1 drugs at home to cut costs.—
Nicole Fallert,
USA Today,
28 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Genocide is defined as attempting to partly or wholly destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.—
Ellie Cook
Shane Croucher,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Sep. 2025
-
The United Nations broadly defines genocide as seriously harming or killing members of a group with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.—
Kathryn Watson,
CBS News,
12 Apr. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Tribal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tribal. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share