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distribute

verb

Simple meaning

To divide into portions and dispense.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dihstribyoot

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dɪstˈɹɪbjut

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. transitive

    To divide into portions and dispense.

  2. Spread throughout a given area

    “The function distributes the values evenly.”

  3. transitive

    To apportion (more or less evenly).

  4. transitive

    To classify or separate into categories.

  5. transitive

    To scatter or spread.

  6. Be mathematically distributive

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Varies by meaning

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To divide into portions and dispense.

Used this way, distribute is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • parcel out , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use distribute

  • “The publisher wants to distribute the book in Asia.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

distribute information

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • distributedadjectiveInflected form

    Spread out or scattered about or divided up.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • distributornounPerson or profession

    Someone who markets merchandise.

  • distributiveadjectiveDerived adjective

    Serving to distribute or allot or disperse.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • distributed data processingnounCompound term

    Data processing in which some of the functions are performed in different places and connected by transmission facilities.

  • distributed firenounCompound term

    Fire dispersed so as to engage effectively an area target.

  • widely distributedadjectiveCompound term

    Growing or occurring in many parts of the world.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • distribution lawnounRelated term

    The total energy in an assembly of molecules is not distributed equally but is distributed around an average value according to a statistical distribution.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to divide into portions and dispense

parcel outRaredealmete out

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.