释义 |
dis·tri·bu·tion I. \ˌdistrəˈbyüshən\ noun (-s) Etymology: Middle English distribucioun, from Latin distribution-, distributio, from distributus + -ion-, -io -ion 1. a. : the act or process of distributing or the condition of being distributed : apportionment, allotment < the distribution of money among creditors > < the distribution of the cards to the players > < a twice yearly distribution of the profits among the stockholders > b. : the process of apportionment by which the value of a product is divided and imputed to the various factors of production as payment for their use c. : the apportionment in a student's program (as required in some American universities) of a certain number of courses to widely different departments or fields of learning for breadth of training — compare concentration 1d d. : the apportionment by a court of the personal property of an intestate or its proceeds among those entitled to it according to the statutes of distribution 2. a. : a spreading out or scattering over an area or throughout a space < the distribution of the seed over the field > < the distribution of the oil throughout the engine parts > b. : the position, placement, or arrangement (as of a mass or the members of a group) over an area or throughout a space or unit of time : the frequency of occurrence : arrangement < the distribution of iron ore in So. America > < distribution of eclipses over a thousand years > < the distribution of the stars > < the distribution of population > < the distribution of the nation's wealth > c. : the natural geographic range of a kind of organism (as a species) or category of organisms (as an order); sometimes : the range of such a kind or category in geologic time d. : the occurrence of a linguistic item in terms of context or geography < the distribution of the allophones of \t\ in English > e. : the disposition or arrangement in rational groups or classes : classification < the accurate distribution of several rare zoological specimens > f. : delivery or conveyance (as of newspapers or goods) to the members of a group < the distribution of telephone directories to customers > < in charge of company sales and distribution > 3. a. : something distributed < supported his family only with the help of charitable distributions > b. : an array in statistics of the instances of a variable arranged by classes according to their value < the distribution showed the heights of all the men in the regiment given at one-inch intervals > c. : probability density function 4. : the status of a term in logic with respect to its being distributed or undistributed 5. : a device, mechanism, or system by which something is distributed (as from a main source): as a. : the operations regulating the passage of the working fluid (as steam) through an engine cylinder including admission, cutoff, release, exhaust, and compression b. : the pattern of branching and termination of a nerve, artery, or other ramifying structure c. : the part of an electric supply system between bulk power sources (as generating stations or transformation stations tapped from transmission lines) and the consumers' service switches 6. : the marketing or merchandising of commodities < the mail-order distribution of books > < keeping track of all distribution costs of a manufactured article for a year > 7. : the manner in which the suits in a pack of playing cards are divided in one player's hand or in which one suit is divided among the hands of all the players < a hand with 4-3-3-3 distribution contains four cards in one suit and three cards in each of the other suits > II. noun 1. : frequency distribution 2. : probability function |