Distribute

How to spell distribute

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce distribute

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does distribute mean?

1. verbTo divide something among several recipients or spread it across an area.

Distribute in a sentence

• The charity will distribute food parcels to families in need.

• The publisher needs to distribute the new edition to bookshops nationwide.

Where does distribute come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin distribuere, meaning 'to deal out' or 'to divide among several people'. It is built from the prefix dis-, meaning 'apart' or 'in different directions', and the verb tribuere, which meant 'to allot, assign, or pay'. That verb in turn goes back to tribus, the word for a 'tribe', because in early Rome public dues and allotments were apportioned among the tribes; the same root gives us 'tribute', 'contribute', and 'attribute'. English took the word in during the early 1400s, keeping the literal Latin sense of sharing something out into portions. The spelling trap sits in the unstressed middle: the schwa sounds make the second and third syllables easy to muddle, and the single b plus the -ute ending often tempts writers to add letters that are not there.

How the word is built

• dis- (apart, in different directions)
• tribut (from Latin tribuere: to allot, assign, pay)
• -e