distribution

American  

[dis-truh-byoo-shuhn] / ˌdɪs trəˈbju ʃən /

noun

• distributions
  plural

1. an act or instance of distributing.

2. the state or manner of being distributed.

3. arrangement; classification.

4. something that is distributed.

5. the frequency of occurrence or the natural geographic range or place where any item or category of items occurs.

   What is the distribution of coniferous forests in the world?

6. placement, location, arrangement, or disposition.

   The distribution of our troops is a military secret.

7. apportionment.

   The court decided the distribution of the property among the heirs.

8. the delivery or giving out of an item or items to the intended recipients, as mail or newspapers.

9. the total number of an item delivered, sold, or given out.

   The distribution of our school paper is now 800.

10. the marketing, transporting, merchandising, and selling of any item.

11. (in bridge and other card games) the way in which the suits of a deck of cards are, or one specific suit is, divided or apportioned in one player's hand or among the hands of all the players.

    My distribution was six spades, four hearts, two clubs, and a singleton diamond.

12. Economics.

    1. the division of the aggregate income of any society among its members, or among the factors of production.

    2. the system of dispersing goods throughout a community.

13. Statistics. a set of values or measurements of a set of elements, each measurement being associated with an element.

14. Mathematics. a generalized function used especially in solving differential equations.

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distribution British  

/ ˌdɪstrɪˈbjuːʃən /

noun

1. the act of distributing or the state or manner of being distributed

2. a thing or portion distributed

3. arrangement or location

4. commerce the process of physically satisfying the demand for goods and services

5. economics the division of the total income of a community among its members, esp between labour incomes (wages and salaries) and property incomes (rents, interest, and dividends)

6. statistics the set of possible values of a random variable, or points in a sample space, considered in terms of new theoretical or observed frequency

   a normal distribution

7. law the apportioning of the estate of a deceased intestate among the persons entitled to share in it

8. law the lawful division of the assets of a bankrupt among his creditors

9. finance

   1. the division of part of a company's profit as a dividend to its shareholders

   2. the amount paid by dividend in a particular distribution

10. engineering the way in which the fuel-air mixture is supplied to each cylinder of a multicylinder internal-combustion engine

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distribution Cultural  

1. The process of marketing and merchandising goods. Also, the way in which wealth or goods or services are allotted, as in the distribution of wealth.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• misdistribution
  noun
• nondistribution
  noun
• predistribution
  noun
• superdistribution
  noun
• distributional
  adjective
• nondistributional
  adjective
• prodistribution
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• distributions
  plural

Etymology

Origin of distribution

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin distribūtiōn-, stem of distribūtiō “division”; equivalent to distribute + -ion

Explanation

Distribution means the passing out of something. A teacher is in charge of distribution of corrected essays. A lunch lady manages the distribution of food. Distribution can also refer to the way something is distributed. In our country, many are concerned about the distribution of wealth, which is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the richest few. When you put money in a brokerage account, it's called a contribution. Taking it out is a distribution.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

distribution distributions

A closer look at muscle fiber sizes showed a relatively even distribution among the control mice.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026

Stop Killing Games, which campaigns against all-digital distribution models, criticised the alleged leaks as "destructive" and urged people not to send money to those claiming responsibility.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

Netflix said in a statement last month that it is conducting an investigation and is offering to monitor piracy sites for any unauthorized distribution or sale of the film.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

Apple’s installed base of over 2.5 billion devices offers a unique distribution advantage, but success hinges on the utility that AI features can provide for consumers in their everyday lives.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026

Gey was relieved that companies had taken over HeLa distribution so that he didn’t have to do it himself, but he didn’t like the fact that HeLa was now completely out of his control.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

Some hollow core fibers can be filled with gases or liquids, allowing them to map temperature distributions or even function as tiny laboratories for chemical experiments.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026

To get by, parents are searching their local back-to-school fairs for supplies, or seeking out backpack giveaways and school supply distributions.

From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2026

These techniques could more widely increase knowledge of species' distributions, helping effective conservation to be targeted in the right place, it said.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

Strong capital generation means the Dutch bank is well-positioned for capital distributions, RBC says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

The greater geographic fragmentation of the Americas compared with Eurasia is also reflected in distributions of languages.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Related Words

• circulation
• delivery
• disposal
• dissemination
• handling
• marketing
• sharing
• trading
• transport
• transportation