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
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
“The best way you could be lowering your food costs right now is by having a more poultry-forward menu,” said Kevin Hourican, the CEO of food distributor Sysco.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
The distributor explained that the character depicted was a "living mummy" who was returned to her parents as a young adult, many years after having been kidnapped as a child.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
Terryl remembers that Danny, to make sure church wasn’t an option, would sometimes take the distributor cap off of Kathie’s long, chocolate brown Cadillac, disabling the aging sedan.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
The products were sold to retail grocery stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin and to third-party distributors, the company said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
At the same time, other major distributors combined “added about 67 projects.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 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
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.
