Library / English Dictionary

DISTRIBUTE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to become widely known

Example:

broadcast the news

Synonyms:

broadcast; circularise; circularize; circulate; diffuse; disperse; disseminate; distribute; pass around; propagate; spread

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "distribute" is one way to...):

air; bare; publicise; publicize (make public)

Cause:

circulate; go around; spread (become widely known and passed on)

Verb group:

circulate; go around; spread (become widely known and passed on)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "distribute"):

podcast (distribute (multimedia files) over the internet for playback on a mobile device or a personal computer)

sow (introduce into an environment)

generalise; generalize; popularise; popularize; vulgarise; vulgarize (cater to popular taste to make popular and present to the general public; bring into general or common use)

carry; run (include as the content; broadcast or publicize)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Distribute or disperse widely

Example:

The invaders spread their language all over the country

Synonyms:

distribute; spread

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "distribute"):

diffuse; fan out; spread; spread out (move outward)

sprawl; straggle (go, come, or spread in a rambling or irregular way)

redistribute (distribute anew)

deploy (to distribute systematically or strategically)

propagate (transmit or cause to broaden or spread)

export (cause to spread in another part of the world)

straw; strew (spread by scattering ()

discharge (pour forth or release)

metastasise; metastasize (spread throughout the body)

generalise; generalize (become systemic and spread throughout the body)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

distribution (the act of distributing or spreading or apportioning)

Sense 3

Meaning:

To arrange in a systematic order

Example:

stagger the chairs in the lecture hall

Synonyms:

distribute; stagger

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "distribute" is one way to...):

arrange; set up (put into a proper or systematic order)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Cause to be distributed

Example:

This letter is being circulated among the faculty

Synonyms:

circulate; distribute; pass around; pass on

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "distribute" is one way to...):

displace; move (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "distribute"):

send around (forward to others)

utter (put into circulation)

scatter; spread; spread out (strew or distribute over an area)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Sense 5

Meaning:

Give to several people

Example:

The teacher handed out the exams

Synonyms:

distribute; give out; hand out; pass out

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "distribute" is one way to...):

gift; give; present (give as a present; make a gift of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "distribute"):

apportion; deal; divvy up; portion out; share (give out as one's portion or share)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Derivation:

distributive (serving to distribute or allot or disperse)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Administer or bestow, as in small portions

Example:

the machine dispenses soft drinks

Synonyms:

administer; allot; deal; deal out; dish out; dispense; distribute; dole out; lot; mete out; parcel out; shell out

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "distribute" is one way to...):

give (transfer possession of something concrete or abstract to somebody)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "distribute"):

allot; assign; portion (give out)

reallot (allot again)

deal (distribute cards to the players in a game)

apply; give (give or convey physically)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Derivation:

distributer (electrical device that distributes voltage to the spark plugs of a gasoline engine in the order of the firing sequence)

distribution (the act of distributing or spreading or apportioning)

distributor (a person with authority to allot or deal out or apportion)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Make available

Example:

The publisher wants to distribute the book in Asia

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "distribute" is one way to...):

transfer (cause to change ownership)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "distribute"):

issue; supply (circulate or distribute or equip with)

reticulate (distribute by a network, as of water or electricity)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue distribute the movie

Derivation:

distributer (someone who markets merchandise)

distribution (the commercial activity of transporting and selling goods from a producer to a consumer)

distributor (someone who markets merchandise)

Sense 8

Meaning:

Be mathematically distributive

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "distribute" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 9

Meaning:

Be distributed or spread, as in statistical analyses

Example:

Values distribute

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "distribute" is one way to...):

be; exist (have an existence, be extant)

Verb group:

distribute (spread throughout a given area)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 10

Meaning:

Spread throughout a given area

Example:

the function distributes the values evenly

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "distribute" is one way to...):

scatter; spread; spread out (strew or distribute over an area)

Verb group:

distribute (be distributed or spread, as in statistical analyses)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

Strong winds in the Dry Valleys, however, can temporarily cause large spikes in the amount of locally produced black carbon, which is distributed through the ecosystem.

(Soot transported from elsewhere in world contributes little to melting of some Antarctic glaciers, National Science Foundation)

The attack involved targeting Dyn's domain name system servers with a large volume of requests, rendering it incapable of serving replies to legitimate requests — a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack.

(Distributed malware attacks Dyn DNS, takes down websites in US, Wikinews)

Adenylyl cyclase is encoded by the ADCY9 gene and widely distributed.

(Adenylate Cyclase, NCI Thesaurus)

It remains unclear how the newly discovered activity affects knowledge about the glacier, because researchers don't yet know how volcanic heat is distributed along the bottom of the ice sheet.

(Previously unsuspected volcanic activity confirmed under West Antarctic Ice Sheet at Pine Island Glacier, National Science Foundation)

In some cases this can give better results, particularly where the data is not 'normally' distributed.

(Cosine Distance Method, NCI Thesaurus)

A device designed to install something or distribute something in a systematic way.

(Device Deployer Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)

A study of the process by which a drug is absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and eliminated by the body.

(Pharmacokinetic Study, NCI Thesaurus)

The concept concerned with all aspects of providing and distributing health services to a patient population.

(Patient Care, NCI Thesaurus)

The activity of drugs in the body over a period of time, including the processes by which drugs are absorbed, distributed in the body, localized in the tissues, and excreted.

(Pharmacokinetics, NCI Dictionary)

The branch of pharmacokinetics that studies the process by which a drug is distributed by the body.

(Pharmacokinetics: Distribution, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)