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:
The forecast came as the company, a major food distributor for Whole Foods, swung to a fourth-quarter profit despite lower sales.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
The sandwich shop had struggled to maintain supply of the cola for the last eight years as the distributor cut back production due to the rising cost of aluminium.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
But after an indie distributor rescued it, the Looney Tunes flick made a triumphant debut in theaters, earning the No. 2 box-office slot this weekend.
From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2026
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
He was soon the world’s largest distributor in the fastest-growing industry in history.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Michel-Edouard Leclerc, head of the leading supermarket chain E.Leclerc, said "refiners are lining their pockets" while it is impossible for retail distributors to compete.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
Healthcare makes up another chunk of the fund, which owns a number of managed-care companies and drug distributors in the U.S. and drug companies in Europe.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026
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
It agreed to buy back any unsold equipment from those distributors, but improperly recognized the sales to distributors as revenue, the SEC alleged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
When they finished, she placed a phone call to activate a network of distributors already in place.
From "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice" by Phillip Hoose
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.
