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# distribute

«distribute» in Mova's school dictionary: **To give or share things out among a number of people: The…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (distribute, distributes, distributed, distributing)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To give or share things out among a number of people: The teacher distributed the books. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/distribute/#m1)

2) To spread something over an area: Distribute the seeds evenly. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/distribute/#m2)

3) To deliver goods to shops: The company distributes food to supermarkets. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/distribute/#m3)

4) (maths) To share a total into groups or parts. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/distribute/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In maths problems «distribute equally» means divide a total into equal shares; in everyday life charities distribute food and teachers distribute worksheets. In algebra the distributive law: 3 × (4 + 5) = 3 × 4 + 3 × 5. Phrases: «distribute equally», «distribute among», «distribute to».

### examples

- The teacher distributed 30 pencils equally among 6 tables, so each table got 5. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/distribute/#x1)
- Volunteers distributed food to families. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/distribute/#x2)
- Distribute the icing evenly over the cake. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/distribute/#x3)
- The company distributes milk to shops in the town. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/distribute/#x4)
- Please distribute these leaflets to every house. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/distribute/#x5)
- The prize money was distributed among the winners. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/distribute/#x6)
- Seeds are distributed by wind and birds. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/distribute/#x7)
- Well, they dug up both the pots, and began to distribute the money among the poor. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/distribute/#x8)

### note

Regular verb. Noun: distribution; adjective: distributive. In maths, «distributed equally among n» means divide by n; «distributed» alone does not always mean equal shares — check the question. Stress: dis-TRIB-ute.

### In the corpora

- [These are the inheritances which Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan at Jericho, eastward.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JOS.347/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «distribute» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/distribute/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.