n. The act of dividing or parceling out; allotment in shares or according to requirement; apportionment; division among several: as, the distribution of an estate among the heirs; the distribution of justice or of alms; the distribution of parts in a play.n. That which is distributed or apportioned.n. The act or process of separating and arranging, or the special arrangement secured; separation into distinct order, parts, or classes; systematic or natural arrangement: as, the distribution of printing-types into their boxes (see distribute, II., 2); the distribution of plants into genera and species.n. The act of spreading out as over a surface; in printing, the spreading of ink in an even film over the inking-rollers and the inking-table.n. In rhetoric: Enumeration of several persons or things, with attribution to each of a special office, function, or characteristic.n. The classification of the topics of a discourse by dividing them under different heads: now more commonly called division.n. In logic: The distinguishing of a universal whole into its several kinds or species: thus differing from division, by which an integral whole is distinguished into its several parts.n. The acceptation of a term in a general sense to apply to many individuals.n. In architecture, the arrangement of a plan with reference to walls and open spaces, or to the various services and uses to which the different apartments of an interior are destined; also, the artistic combination of masses, ornaments, wall-openings, various kinds of masonry, etc.—n. In political economics, the division of the aggregate produce of the industry of any society among the independent individuals who compose it.—n. In steam-engines, the operation by which steam is admitted into and withdrawn from the cylinder at each stroke of the piston.n. Synonyms Apportionment, partition, division, disposition, grouping.