mindmap root((TRIB)) tribute 1、 Something （such as a gift or speech） that is given or performed to show appreciation, respect, or affection.
2、 Something that proves the good quality or effectiveness of something.
🌱Near the end of his speech, he paid tribute to the two pioneers in the field who were in the audience. 🌳Tribute originally took the form of things given from a weaker group to the dominant power of a region—a bit like the "protection money" the Mafia gets from small businesses after making them offers they can't refuse, though the older form of tribute actually did buy the weaker group some protection from enemy forces. Tribute could come in the form of valuables, cattle, or even produce, and might include the loan of warriors to strengthen the ruler's army. But when we "pay tribute" today, it's generally in the form of praise. And when we say, for instance, that a successful school "is a tribute to" the vision of its founder, we mean that its success is itself a form of praise for the person who founded it. And a "tribute band" is a rock group intended to honor a great band of the past. tributary A stream flowing into a larger stream or a lake.
🌱The entire expedition had perished of fever attempting to reach the source of one of the Amazon's great tributaries. 🌳A tributary was originally a person or state that owed tribute to a more powerful person or state. Ancient China, for instance, had dozens of tributary states, and the emperor would receive elephants from Siam or young girls from Korea as tribute. Just as a smaller power gave some of its wealth to a larger power, a small river contributes its waters to a larger one. A tributary can be a tiny stream, but some are immense rivers. The Missouri River, for example, could be called a tributary to the Mississippi, even though it's about 2,500 miles long and receives hundreds of tributaries itself. attribute 1、 To explain by indicating a cause.
2、 To regard as likely to be a quality of a person or thing.
🌱He attributed his long life to a good sense of humor and a glass of wine with lunch and dinner every day. 🌳Attribute means something rather similar to "pay tribute." So, for example, an award winner who pays tribute to an inspiring professor is, in a sense, attributing her success to the professor. Though if you attribute your fear of dogs to an incident in your childhood, you're not exactly praising the nasty dog that bit you way back when. The second sense of attribute is slightly different: If you attribute bad motives to a politician, it means you think he or she is doing things for the wrong reasons （even if you don't have any proof）. When attribute is accented on its first syllable, it's being used as a noun, usually as a synonym for quality. So, for instance, you may believe that an even temper is an attribute of the best presidents, or that cheerfulness is your spouse's best attribute. retribution Something given in payment for a wrong; punishment.
🌱The victims' families have been clamoring for retribution, sometimes even interrupting the trial proceedings. 🌳With its prefix re-, meaning "back," retribution means literally "payback." And indeed we usually use it when talking about personal revenge, whether it's retribution for an insult in a high-school corridor or retribution for a guerrilla attack on a government building. But retribution isn't always so personal: God takes "divine retribution" on humans several times in the Old Testament, especially in the great Flood that wipes out almost the entire human race. And retribution for criminal acts, usually in the form of a prison sentence, is taken by the state, not the victims.