distribute
B2 (Upper Intermediate)Formal to Neutral. Common in academic, business, and technical writing, but also used in everyday contexts.
Definition
Meaning
To give something out or deliver it to a number of people or places, often in a planned or systematic way.
To spread or scatter something over an area; to divide something into parts and share it out; to make a product available for sale in different places; to separate data or tasks among different components in computing.
Linguistics
Semantic Notes
Implies an agent (someone or something that does the distributing) and a set of recipients or a target area. Often involves a deliberate, organized action. Contrasts with 'collect' or 'gather'.
Dialectal Variation
British vs American Usage
Differences
In statistics, BrE may use 'distribute' where AmE sometimes prefers 'distributed' (e.g., 'normally distributed data'). Differences in prepositional use are minimal.
Connotations
Generally the same. In legal/business contexts, both use it for disseminating profits or goods.
Frequency
Equally common in both dialects.
Vocabulary
Collocations
Grammar
Valency Patterns
distribute + [object] + to/among/throughout + [recipient/area]distribute + [object] + [adverb/prepositional phrase]be + distributed + [adverb/prepositional phrase]Vocabulary
Synonyms
Strong
Neutral
Weak
Vocabulary
Antonyms
Phrases
Idioms & Phrases
- “Distribute the wealth”
- “Evenly distributed”
Usage
Context Usage
Business
To deliver products to retailers or customers; to allocate profits to shareholders (dividends).
Academic
To describe the spatial arrangement or statistical spread of data or phenomena.
Everyday
To share food at a party, to give out papers in a classroom.
Technical
In computing, to share processing tasks across multiple servers (distributed computing).
Examples
By Part of Speech
verb
British English
- The charity will distribute the aid parcels throughout the region.
- Profits are distributed among the partners at year's end.
- The software is designed to distribute the workload across the network.
American English
- Volunteers will distribute flyers downtown this weekend.
- The company distributes its products to stores nationwide.
- The teacher distributed the test papers to the class.
adverb
British English
- The data was stored distributively across several servers.
American English
- The tasks were completed distributively by the team members.
adjective
British English
- The distributed network proved more resilient.
- We analysed the distributed ledger technology.
American English
- They manage a distributed workforce across three time zones.
- The report covered distributed energy resources.
Examples
By CEFR Level
- Please distribute these worksheets to the class.
- They distributed food after the festival.
- The organisation distributes information about healthy eating.
- The manager will distribute the new tasks tomorrow.
- The government aims to distribute resources more equitably across the country.
- How is wealth distributed in modern societies?
- The film was distributed internationally by a major studio, achieving critical acclaim.
- The algorithm efficiently distributes computational loads to prevent system bottlenecks.
Learning
Memory Aids
Mnemonic
Think of a TRIBE receiving food: The leader DIS-TRIBUTE-s the supplies TO the tribe.
Conceptual Metaphor
SHARING IS DISTRIBUTING (a bounded resource moving from a centre to periphery); ORGANIZATION IS DISTRIBUTION (bringing order by placing things in their proper places).
Watch out
Common Pitfalls
Translation Traps (for Russian speakers)
- Do not confuse with 'распределять' in the sense of 'assign tasks' (better: assign, delegate).
- Do not use 'distribute' for simply 'sharing' information casually among friends (use 'share' or 'tell').
- Avoid using 'раздавать' for abstract concepts where 'disseminate' or 'circulate' is more precise.
Common Mistakes
- Incorrect preposition: 'distribute between' (use 'among' for >2).
- Passive voice error: 'The books were distributed to the students' (correct), vs. 'The books distributed to...' (incorrect - missing 'were').
- Confusion with 'attribute' (to give credit) or 'contribute' (to give to a common fund).
Practice
Quiz
In a computing context, 'distribute' most closely means:
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a regular verb: distribute - distributed - distributed.
'Distribute' has a broader sense of giving out to many. 'Dispense' often implies a measured or official giving out, especially of medicine, advice, or justice.
Rarely. It is almost always a transitive verb, requiring a direct object (e.g., distribute *what*?). In passive voice, the object becomes the subject.
The main noun forms are 'distribution' (the act or process) and 'distributor' (a person or company that distributes goods).