distribution

See also: Distribution

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old French, from Latin distributio, from distribuere 'to distribute', itself from dis- 'apart' + tribuere 'to' (from tribus).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˌdɪstɹəˈbjuːʃən/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun

distribution (countable and uncountable, plural distributions)

Mind map
  1. An act of distributing or state of being distributed.
  2. An apportionment by law (of funds, property).
  3. (business, marketing) The process by which goods get to final consumers over a geographical market, including storing, selling, shipping and advertising.
  4. Anything distributed; portion; share.
    • December 6, 1709, Francis Atterbury, a sermon preach'd before the sons of the clergy at their anniversary-meeting in the Church of St. Paul
      our charitable distributions
  5. The result of distributing; arrangement.
  6. The total number of something sold or delivered to the clients.
    The distribution of my little rock magazine is about 3,000.
  7. The frequency of occurrence or extent of existence.
  8. (economics) The apportionment of income or wealth in a population.
    The wealth distribution became extremely skewed in the kleptocracy.
  9. (card games) The way in which a player's hand is divided in suits, or in which a particular suit is divided between the players.
    The declarer had 3-6-2-2 distribution.
  10. (mathematics, statistics) A probability distribution; the set of relative likelihoods that a variable will have a value in a given interval.
  11. (mathematics, differential geometry) A subset of the tangent bundle of a manifold that satisfies certain properties; used to construct the notions of integrability and foliation of a manifold.
  12. (software) A set of bundled software components.
    Synonym: distro
    a Linux distribution
  13. (finance) The process or result of the sale of securities, especially their placement among investors with long-term investment strategies.
  14. (logic) The resolution of a whole into its parts.
  15. (printing, historical) The process of sorting the types and placing them in their proper boxes in the cases.
  16. (steam engines) The steps or operations by which steam is supplied to and withdrawn from the cylinder at each stroke of the piston: admission, suppression or cutting off, release or exhaust, and compression of exhaust steam prior to the next admission.
  17. (rhetoric) A rhetorical technique in which a subject is divided into multiple cases based on some property or properties, and each case is addressed individually.
    • 1553, Thomas Wilson, The Arte of Rhetorique (1962), book iii, folio 99, page 209 s.v. “Diſtribucion”:
      It is alſo called a diſtribucion, when we diuide the whole, into ſeuerall partes, and ſaie we haue foure poynctes, whereof we purpoſe to ſpeake, compꝛehendyng our whole talke within compaſſe of theſame.
    • 1728, Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopædia I, page 230/2 s.v. “Diſtribution²”:
      Diſtribution, in Rhetoric, a Kind of Deſcription; or a Figure, whereby an orderly Diviſion, and Enumeration is made of the principal Qualities of a Subject.

Derived terms

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

References

Further reading

Danish

Noun

distribution c (singular definite distributionen, plural indefinite distributioner)

  1. distribution, dissemination
  2. distribution of goods and/or services
  3. (statistics) a distribution

Declension
Declension of distribution
common
gender		 Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative distribution distributionen distributioner distributionerne
genitive distributions distributionens distributioners distributionernes

Further reading

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin distribūtiō.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /dis.tʁi.by.sjɔ̃/
  • audio(file)

Noun

distribution f (plural distributions)

  1. delivery
    Near-synonym: livraison
    la distribution du courrier ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
  2. distribution (process by which goods get to final consumers over a geographical market)
    la grande distribution ― large retailers
    la moyenne distribution ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
    la petite distribution ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
  3. allocation, casting
    Synonym: répartition
    la distribution des rôles ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
  4. distribution (physical arrangement, spacing)
    Synonym: répartition
    aire de distribution ― range
    distribution complémentaire ― complementary distribution

Further reading

Swedish

Noun

distribution c

  1. distribution
  2. (mathematics) a distribution, generalized function
  3. (statistics) a distribution

Declension
Declension of distribution 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative distribution distributionen distributioner distributionerna
Genitive distributions distributionens distributioners distributionernas

See also

References
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