1. in a manner that distributes or spreads something among multiple recipients or parts; by distributing individually rather than collectively
Usage: commonly used in mathematics and logic to describe the distributive property
2. in a way that applies a rule or operation to each member of a group separately
Usage: technical; used in mathematics, linguistics, and formal logic

Examples

• The teacher distributively assigned homework problems to each student rather than giving the same problem to everyone.
• In mathematics, multiplication works distributively over addition: a(b + c) = ab + ac.
• The resources were distributively allocated to each department based on need.
• The law applies distributively to all citizens, treating each case individually.
• The company distributively shared profits among its employees rather than pooling them.
• In logic, the quantifier operates distributively across the conjunction of propositions.