- past participle of distribute.
- past tense form of distribute.
distributed
Americanadjective
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Computers.
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being or relating to a network of devices, workstations, etc., in different locations connected by means of one or more other networks, allowing each member to carry out some or all of the management and processing of the shared information.
As computers began to connect across the internet, the CPU evolved from being specifically a central control system to become a node within a distributed network.
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being or relating to a single database shared across such a network, especially one integrating multiple smaller databases.
Back then no one was thinking of distributed databases with hundreds of servers working to keep data consistent across the nodes.
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Linguistics. (in distinctive feature analysis) characterized by relatively extensive contact or constriction between the articulating organs, as the in show in contrast to the in so.
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Statistics. showing a specified type of distribution.
A randomly distributed dominant gene has a prevalence of 75 percent.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of distributed
Explanation
Something is distributed when it's divided up or spread around, the way cupcakes might be distributed among guests at a birthday party. Distributed is a word that's often used to describe the stuff that businesses sell. When a truck pulls up to a convenience store and the driver unloads cases of soda, the soda is being distributed. The driver will go from store to store, distributing all of the soda in the truck between different stores and restaurants. Words and ideas can be distributed too, which is what happens at school when students are lucky.
Vocabulary lists containing distributed
Copper Sun
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Homesick
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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.
A budget bill approved Tuesday morning also includes $25 million for home hardening grants, rebates or loans to be distributed through a separate program to be created by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
"We have also distributed underwear but there are a lot of people and not everyone would have got them. We will distribute another lot in two days," she told AFP.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
Instead of being laid out spatially, its wiring works more like a bar code, with distributed patterns of activity representing particular smells or complex memories.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026
Within weeks, the foundation distributed $5 million each to two nonprofit organizations.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
A false rumour that the whole household was being distributed free spread like wildfire; and before long the place was packed with people who had no business there, but could not be kept out.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
