Phrase guide

complementary distribution

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The distribution of phones in their respective phonetic environments such that one never appears in the same phonetic context as the other.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, phonetics, phonology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

(linguistics) a distribution of related speech sounds or forms in such a way that they only appear in different contexts

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: complementation

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: distribution, dispersion

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

16 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Armenian: լրացուցիչ բաշխում (lracʻucʻičʻ bašxum) — distribution of phones
  • Chinese Mandarin: 互補分佈 /互补分布 (hùbǔ fēnbù) — distribution of phones
  • Finnish: täydennysjakauma — distribution of phones
  • French: distribution complémentaire — distribution of phones
  • Hungarian: kiegészítő eloszlás — distribution of phones
  • Italian: distribuzione complementare — distribution of phones
  • Japanese: 相補分布 (sōho bunpu) — distribution of phones
  • Mongolian: нөхөх байр (nöxöx bajr) — distribution of phones
  • Mongolian: ᠨᠥᠬᠥᠬᠦ ᠪᠠᠶᠢᠷᠢ (nökökü bayiri) — distribution of phones
  • Polish: dystrybucja komplementarna — distribution of phones
  • Portuguese: distribuição complementar — distribution of phones
  • Russian: дополни́тельная дистрибу́ция (dopolnítelʹnaja distribúcija) — distribution of phones
  • Russian: дополни́тельное распределе́ние (dopolnítelʹnoje raspredelénije) — distribution of phones
  • Serbo-Croatian: komplementarna distribucija — distribution of phones
  • Serbo-Croatian: комплементарна дистрибуција — distribution of phones
  • Spanish: distribución complementaria — distribution of phones