What does "subtribe" mean?

A tribe making up part of a larger tribe.

What is a synonym for "subtribe"?

Common synonyms include: branch, class, family, genotype, genus, kingdom.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A tribe making up part of a larger tribe.
"This leaves for consideration of this group of small tribes, or subtribes, so far as mapped by the writer quoted, the Teule, Cazcan, and Tecuexe."
2
A taxonomic category ranking below tribe.
"The tempo of evolution in South American hamsters was very rapid – in the course of the Pliocene and Anthropocene 40 genera were formed here, at which time a series of them attained the level of tribe and subtribe (Oxymycteri, Phyllotiini, Ichthyomyini)."

"This leaves for consideration of this group of small tribes, or subtribes, so far as mapped by the writer quoted, the Teule, Cazcan, and Tecuexe."

From sub- + tribe. In taxonomy, a semantic loan from New Latin subtribus.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.