Were the Tribals destroyers or very light cruisers?

Were the Tribal-class ships heavy destroyers or very light cruisers?

Their role sat between the categories, and the Royal Navy ultimately grouped them as destroyers without resolving the conceptual overlap.

The Tribals never entirely settled whether they were very heavy destroyers or very light cruisers. They entered service as a distinctive class rather than as a neat expression of either category. Administrative grouping eventually made them destroyers, but their gun power and attack style preserved the ambiguity. Their case separates formal classification from tactical behaviour.