distributive

adjective/dɪˈstrɪbjətɪv/

Frequency rank: #19,158 most common English word

Meaning

relating to the equal or fair allocation of something among members of a group, or (in mathematics) describing an operation that applies across a sum or difference.

Illustration for the English word “distributive”

Example sentence

The teacher explained the distributive property, showing that multiplying a number by a sum gives the same result as multiplying each addend separately.

Synonyms & related words

  • spreading
  • allocating
  • dispersive

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