noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin tribus, a division of the Roman people, tribe
Date: 13th century
1. a social group comprising numerous families, clans, or generations together with slaves, dependents, or adopted strangers, a political division of the Roman people originally representing one of the three original tribes of ancient Rome, phyle , a group of persons having a common character, occupation, or interest, a category of taxonomic classification ranking below a subfamily