I. ˌdistrəˈbyüshən noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English distribucioun, from Latin distribution-, distributio, from distributus + -ion-, -io -ion
1.
a. : the act or process of distributing or the condition of being distributed : apportionment , allotment
the distribution of money among creditors
the distribution of the cards to the players
a twice yearly distribution of the profits among the stockholders
b. : the process of apportionment by which the value of a product is divided and imputed to the various factors of production as payment for their use
c. : the apportionment in a student's program (as required in some American universities) of a certain number of courses to widely different departments or fields of learning for breadth of training — compare concentration 1d
d. : the apportionment by a court of the personal property of an intestate or its proceeds among those entitled to it according to the statutes of distribution
2.
a. : a spreading out or scattering over an area or throughout a space
the distribution of the seed over the field
the distribution of the oil throughout the engine parts
b. : the position, placement, or arrangement (as of a mass or the members of a group) over an area or throughout a space or unit of time : the frequency of occurrence : arrangement
the distribution of iron ore in So. America
distribution of eclipses over a thousand years
the distribution of the stars
the distribution of population
the distribution of the nation's wealth
c. : the natural geographic range of a kind of organism (as a species) or category of organisms (as an order) ; sometimes : the range of such a kind or category in geologic time
d. : the occurrence of a linguistic item in terms of context or geography
the distribution of the allophones of t in English
e. : the disposition or arrangement in rational groups or classes : classification
the accurate distribution of several rare zoological specimens
f. : delivery or conveyance (as of newspapers or goods) to the members of a group
the distribution of telephone directories to customers
in charge of company sales and distribution
3.
a. : something distributed
supported his family only with the help of charitable distributions
b. : an array in statistics of the instances of a variable arranged by classes according to their value
the distribution showed the heights of all the men in the regiment given at one-inch intervals
c. : probability density function
4. : the status of a term in logic with respect to its being distributed or undistributed
5. : a device, mechanism, or system by which something is distributed (as from a main source): as
a. : the operations regulating the passage of the working fluid (as steam) through an engine cylinder including admission, cutoff, release, exhaust, and compression
b. : the pattern of branching and termination of a nerve, artery, or other ramifying structure
c. : the part of an electric supply system between bulk power sources (as generating stations or transformation stations tapped from transmission lines) and the consumers' service switches
6. : the marketing or merchandising of commodities
the mail-order distribution of books
keeping track of all distribution costs of a manufactured article for a year
7. : the manner in which the suits in a pack of playing cards are divided in one player's hand or in which one suit is divided among the hands of all the players
a hand with 4-3-3-3 distribution contains four cards in one suit and three cards in each of the other suits
II. noun
1. : frequency distribution
2. : probability function