Distributed

/dɪsˈtrɪb.ju.tɪd/

Meaning & Definition

verb

Past tense of distribute; to have given out or spread over an area.

The charity distributed food and clothing to those in need after the disaster.

To have allocated resources or assigned tasks to various agents or locations.

The teacher distributed the worksheets to the students at the start of the class.

adjective

Referring to something that is spread or dispersed over an area or among a group.

The distributed network allowed for faster data sharing among users in different locations.

Describing a system where processing tasks are allocated among multiple computers or locations.

In a distributed computing environment, the workload is shared among several machines.

From Middle French 'distribuer', from Latin 'distributus', meaning 'to divide or separate'.

distributed systems

A model in which components located on networked computers communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages.

widely distributed

Referring to something that is spread out over a large area or among many people.

evenly distributed

Referring to something that is spread out without bias or unevenness.

distribute

To divide and hand out in shares.

distribution

The action of sharing something out among a number of recipients.

distributive

Related to the distribution of something.

Spread too thin in contexts like social engagements.

I'm so distributed this week with events, I can't keep track!

To be shared among friends, often used in the context of resources or snacks.

We distributed the pizza equally among everyone.