Other forms: distributions
Distribution is the spreading of something out across people, places or values. Aid handed out village by village after a flood; the distribution of marks in a class, from the two who failed to the one who got everything right.
Three worlds lean on the word. In business it is getting goods from the factory to the shops, which gives you a distribution centre and a distribution network. In statistics it is the shape the numbers make when you plot them: the normal distribution is the bell curve, and a skewed distribution leans to one side. In film and software it is whoever gets the finished thing out to the public. Everyday English keeps the fairness angle — the distribution of wealth, of housework, of power — and the word takes OF. The verb is distribute, with the stress in the middle.
1noundistributionThe way something is spread out or shared among people, places or values.
“The map shows the distribution of rainfall across the country.”
synonyms: spread, allocation
2nounactThe act of giving or delivering things out to many people.
“Volunteers handled the distribution of food parcels.”
3nounsystemThe system of moving goods from producers to shops and customers.
“The company built a new distribution centre beside the motorway.”
4nounstatisticsIn statistics, the pattern a set of values makes across a range.
“The exam results follow a normal distribution.”
distribution is a spreading out.
Distribution came through Old French from Latin distributio, built on distribuere: dis-, 'apart', with tribuere, a verb tied to tribus, the tribe. To distribute was to divide something out in shares, group by group.
Latin
distributio
Old French
distribution
English, today
distribution
From Old French distribution, from Latin distributio, from distribuere 'to distribute', itself from dis- 'apart' + tribuere 'to' (from tribus). by surface analysis, distribute + -ion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA