distributor
Americannoun
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distributors
plural
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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:
To keep up with the portions of protein her customers order, Singletary, who opened Urban Comfort Foods in October, has switched to a different distributor for beef and lamb.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
For example, Energy Capital Partners, or ECP, early this year sold gas distributor Symmetry Energy Solutions to power company NextEra Energy Resources in a roughly $1.15 billion deal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Last weekend, The Irish Times reported, external that a large winery in County Louth has been dropped by a distributor as its labelling didn't reflect that some French grapes had been used in its production.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
Account minimums may vary depending on the relationships between the fund manager or distributor and the advisory or brokerage firm.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 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
The Bicycle Association and the Association of Cycle Traders run an "E-Bike Positive" scheme, external to help consumers identify distributors, retailers and manufacturers that have met current safety standards.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
The partnership will enable artists across the more than 30,000 labels and distributors in Merlin’s network to participate in Spotify’s upcoming AI tool.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Those budgets traditionally come from distributors, but more independent films now go directly to theaters without one.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
We replaced our existing distributors with more capable distributors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
He expanded quickly from the little neighborhood business, the street- front store, for he had mastered enough language to deal with non-Korean suppliers and distributors in other cities and Europe.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
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.
