Word: distribution Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Old French distribution, from Latin distributio, from distribuere 'to distribute', itself from dis- 'apart' + tribuere 'to' (from tribus). By surface analysis, distribute + -ion. Pronunciation: /ˌdɪstɹɪˈbjuːʃən/, /ˌdɪstɹɪˈbjuʃən/, /ˌdɪstɹəˈbjuʃən/, /ˌdɪstɹɪˈbjʉːʃən/, /ˌdəstɹəˈbjʉːʃən/ 1. An act of distributing or state of being distributed. Labels: countable, uncountable 2. An apportionment by law (of funds, property). Labels: countable, uncountable 3. The process by which goods get to final consumers over a geographical market, including storing, selling, shipping and advertising. Labels: countable, uncountable 4. Anything distributed; portion; share. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 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 5. The result of distributing; arrangement. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 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. Example: To specify the effect of flutter with one figure can be extremely misleading, for it says nothing about the distribution of flutter in the spectrum of interest. 6. The total number of something sold or delivered to the clients. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The distribution of my little rock magazine is about 3,000. 7. The frequency of occurrence or extent of existence. Labels: countable, uncountable 8. The apportionment of income or wealth in a population. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The wealth distribution became extremely skewed in the kleptocracy. 9. The way in which a player's hand is divided in suits, or in which a particular suit is divided between the players. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The declarer had 3-6-2-2 distribution. 10. A probability distribution; the set of relative likelihoods that a variable will have a value in a given interval. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 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. Example: The criterion for positivity was determined for each antigen of each species applying a mixture model to the PP data which assumed two inherent Gaussian distributions: a narrow distribution or seronegatives, and a broader distribution of seropositives. 11. A subset of the tangent bundle of a manifold that satisfies certain properties; used to construct the notions of integrability and foliation of a manifold. Labels: countable, uncountable 12. A set of bundled software components. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: a Linux distribution 13. The process or result of the sale of securities, especially their placement among investors with long-term investment strategies. Labels: countable, uncountable 14. The resolution of a whole into its parts. Labels: countable, uncountable 15. The process of sorting the types and placing them in their proper boxes in the cases. Labels: countable, historical, uncountable 16. The steps or operations by which steam is supplied to and withdrawn from the cylinder at each stroke of the piston: admission, suppression or cutting off, release or exhaust, and compression of exhaust steam prior to the next admission. Labels: countable, uncountable 17. A rhetorical technique in which a subject is divided into multiple cases based on some property or properties, and each case is addressed individually. Labels: countable, rhetoric, uncountable Example: It is alſo called a diſtribucion, when we diuide the whole, into ſeuerall partes, and ſaie we haue foure poynctes, whereof we purpoſe to ſpeake, compꝛehendyng our whole talke within compaſſe of theſame. Example: Diſtribution, in Rhetoric, a Kind of Deſcription; or a Figure, whereby an orderly Diviſion, and Enumeration is made of the principal Qualities of a Subject.