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

ByteDance also leads in distribution with its Hongguo platform ranking as China’s largest for short dramas, the analysts note.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

“The better question is how that money fits into the family’s overall investment, tax and distribution strategy.”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026

Dunamu, which operates South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, is preparing to provide technology and distribution support once the necessary legal and regulatory framework is in place, Chief Executive Oh Kyoung-suk said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

The publishers claim they notified Dean's record label of the potential infringement in August, but the music was not pulled from distribution.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

Calculating the pressure distribution over a particular airfoil at a transonic speed could easily take a month to complete for the most experienced of mathematicians.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly

On top of that, if the original owner had started taking the required minimum distributions, the IRS also requires annual distributions in years one through nine, not just a single withdrawal in year 10.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

A lack of distributions and write-offs reduces available funds that underpin economic activity, creating adverse feedback loops.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026

Their dataset included 381 survey transects across 38 catchments and 499 rural properties, along with models charting the distributions of 160 bird species and 426 tree species.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 21, 2026

Once he starts taking his required minimum distributions, his income will be well over $300,000 a year, including Social Security, which is more than he earned most years while working.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

Those and other draconian measures must have contributed to the spread of North China’s Sino-Tibetan languages over most of China, and to reducing the Miao-Yao and other language families to their present fragmented distributions.

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