distributed

adjective

dis·​trib·​ut·​ed di-ˈstri-byü-təd 

 also  -byə-,

 British also  ˈdi-stri-ˌbyü-

1

: characterized by a statistical distribution of a particular kind

a normally distributed random variable

2

computing : having at least some of the processing done by the individual workstations and having information shared by and often stored at the workstations

a distributed network

… makes it possible to take massive tasks and spread them out over a large number of personal computers—a practice called distributed computing.

—J. Bonasia

Examples of distributed in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This bandwidth-first approach enables distributed architectures positioned closer to business operations while maintaining competitive AI capabilities without premium speed optimization costs—critical as infrastructure spending scales enterprise-wide. —Daniel Kearney, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025

The community utilized a distributed network of GPU resources to train Kava AI, enabling it to be trained across hundreds of nodes globally at significantly lower costs than centralized data centers. —Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 22 Aug. 2025

Jiang says the researchers are now looking at developing sensor-rich robotic swarms capable of distributed detection, decision-making, and collective behavior. —IEEE Spectrum, 12 Aug. 2025

And much of the recent methane rise has come not from individual large emitters, but from more distributed sources, including tropical wetlands, which could be emitting more methane in response to warming. —Bypaul Voosen, science.org, 3 Feb. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1968, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing distributed

• distributed denial of service
• evenly distributed
• widely distributed

Rhymes for distributed

• attributed