distribution

English Online Dictionary. What means distribution‎? What does distribution mean?

English

Alternative forms

• distribucion (obsolete)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌdɪstɹəˈbjuːʃən/

Noun

distribution (countable and uncountable, plural distributions)

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.

7. The frequency of occurrence or extent of existence.
8. (economics) The apportionment of income or wealth in a population.

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.

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.
13. (software) A set of bundled software components.

    Synonym: distro

14. (finance) The process or result of the sale of securities, especially their placement among investors with long-term investment strategies.
15. (logic) The resolution of a whole into its parts.
16. (printing, historical) The process of sorting the types and placing them in their proper boxes in the cases.
17. (steam engines) The steps or operations by which steam is supplied to and withdrawn from the cylinder at each stroke of the piston: admission, suppression or cutting off, release or exhaust, and compression of exhaust steam prior to the next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.
18. (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

Related terms

• distributee
• distributive
• distributor

Translations

References

• “Distribution” on page 534 of § 1 (D, ed. James Augustus Henry Murray) of volume III (D–E, 1897) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1st ed.)

Further reading

• Distribution on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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

Further reading

• “distribution” in Den Danske Ordbog

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin distribūtiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dis.tʁi.by.sjɔ̃/

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

• “distribution”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Swedish

Noun

distribution c

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

Declension

Related terms

• distribuera

See also

• fördelning
• spridning
• utdelning

References

• distribution in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• distribution in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)