gens
noun
a group of families in ancient Rome claiming descent from a common ancestor and united by a common name and common ancestral religious rites.
gentes
-
pluralof gens.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In very early times it is probable that foreign gentes were adopted en bloc into the Roman Commonwealth.
From Custom and Myth New Edition by Andrew Lang
This peculiarly complicated order of things is still more entangled by the inoculation—evidently at a later stage—with maternal law gentes.
From The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels
The election, however, had to be confirmed by the other seven gentes, and then only the sachem-elect was solemnly invested, by the common council of the whole Iroquois federation.
From The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels
The curiae and the gentes composing them now were degraded to mere private and religious congregations, analogous to their Attic prototypes, and as such they vegetated on for a long time.
From The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels
Are there any traces at all of totemism in what we know of the Roman gentes?
From Custom and Myth New Edition by Andrew Lang
