distribution

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the spatial or geographic property of being scattered about over a range, area, or volume

   worldwide in distribution

2. 2
   noun

   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

3. 3
   noun

   The result of distributing; arrangement.

   A group of Thai researchers found the spider during an expedition to Phang-Nga province in southern Thailand to research the diversity and distribution of tarantulas in the country.

4. 4
   noun

   The total number of something sold or delivered to the clients.

   The distribution of my little rock magazine is about 3,000.

5. 5
   noun

   The apportionment of income or wealth in a population.

   The wealth distribution became extremely skewed in the kleptocracy.

6. 6
   noun

   The way in which a player's hand is divided in suits, or in which a particular suit is divided between the players.

   The declarer had 3-6-2-2 distribution.

7. 7
   noun

   A probability distribution; the set of relative likelihoods that a variable will have a value in a given interval.

   In fact, NALP has been at the forefront of educating prospective lawyers on the dangers of focusing on “average” starting salaries. The average is meaningless. The median is just slightly more helpful, and NALP has been begging people to pay attention to the bimodal salary distribution curve that tells the true story of how much lawyers are likely to get paid.

8. 8
   noun

   A set of bundled software components.

   a Linux distribution

Etymology

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