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distributed

adjective

Simple meaning

Spread across a relatively wide area.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dihstribyuhtuhd

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dɪstˈɹɪbjətəd

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.

adjective

  1. Spread across a relatively wide area.

  2. computing

    Involving numerous separate computers or entities, rather than the traditional one.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Spread across a relatively wide area.

Used this way, distributed 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

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

More ways to use distributed

  • “The teacher distributed the test papers evenly among all the students.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Spread

widely distributed

Involving

distributed computing

Other combinations

normally distributeduniformly distributedevenly distributedequally distributedrandomly distributeddistributed processing

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • distributeverbBase word

    Administer or bestow, as in small portions.

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.

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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.