distributor
Americannoun
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a person or thing that distributes.
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Commerce.
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a person, firm, etc., engaged in the general distribution or marketing of some article or class of goods.
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a wholesaler who has exclusive rights to market, within a given territory, the goods of a manufacturer or company.
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Automotive, Machinery. a device in a multicylinder engine that distributes the igniting voltage to the spark plugs in a definite sequence.
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Printing.
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(in a press) one of the rollers for spreading ink on the table, rolling it to a proper consistency, and transferring it to rollers that ink the form or plate.
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Also called distributor bar. (in a Linotype) a bar with keylike cuts along its length, for sorting matrices into their proper magazines after type has been cast.
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noun
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a person or thing that distributes
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a wholesaler or middleman engaged in the distribution of a category of goods, esp to retailers in a specific area
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the device in a petrol engine that distributes the high-tension voltage to the sparking plugs in the sequence of the firing order
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of distributor
From the Late Latin word distribūtor, dating back to 1520–30. See distribute, -tor
Explanation
It's great that you've got something amazing to sell, but without a distributor you're not going to be able to get it to the people who want to buy it. To distribute it, you need a distributor. A dealer at a card table is as much a distributor as is the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Both of them share the job of getting their product into the hands of the folks who want it. Whether you're handing out a dozen flyers on the street or shipping a million books to shoppers nationwide, you're a distributor. In the world of electrical engineering, a distributor is a device that sends an electrical current from one contact to another. It distributes the electricity, just like that dealer dealing cards.
Vocabulary lists containing distributor
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.
See Examples For:
At present, if one studio demands unfair prices, a distributor can walk away and deal with the rival.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
He said, “Obsession’s” $403-million worldwide gross is a “big win” for Focus Features, the indie distributor backed by Universal, but it doesn’t compare to what a major studio needs from a tentpole release.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Separately, Alphabet on Monday said DeepMind would collaborate with film studio and distributor A24 on AI research that could ultimately help with things like movie production.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026
“The acquisition of Roku would expand Fox’s position from content owner and distributor into platform ownership, providing direct access to >100 million streaming households,” the analysts write.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
“There is no winner if war breaks out, hot or cold,” Lim Seung-youl, 27, a Seoul clothing distributor, told me.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
Pay-TV distributors and consumers, the coalition said, need robust competition between programmers to encourage investment in content and potentially lower prices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Studios, production companies and distributors regularly approach Promise, a generative AI company, to bring AI into their productions, and each arrives with its own usage guidelines, said the company’s president, Jamie Byrne.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
He started buying its distributors and eventually gained full ownership of the company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Very different cinematic sensibilities originating in entirely separate cultures that broadcasters and film distributors lumped together on the cultural fringe.
From Salon ● May 31, 2026
Sympathetic to Bobby’s plight, the committee circulated to its members a letter of protest that was ultimately sent to Icelandic Television, other media, and to the financial backers and distributors of the film.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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.
