Túath (plural túatha) is an Old Irish word, often translated as "people, tribe or nation". It is cognate with the Old English word theod people, nation and the German root of word deutsch. "Túath" referred to both the people who lived in a shared territory, and the territory they controlled. In Modern Irish it is spelled tuath, without the fada.
In ancient Irish terms, a household was reckoned at about thirty people per dwelling. A tríca cét ("thirty hundreds"), was an area comprising a hundred dwellings or, roughly, three thousand people. A túath consisted of a number of allied tríca céta, and therefore referred to no fewer than 6,000 people. Probably a more accurate number for a túath would be no fewer than 9,000 people.
