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Vocabulary Builder — Essay & Answer Writing

Distributive

adjective / dih-STRIB-yuh-tiv / Medium
Meaning

Relating to how costs, benefits, or resources are allocated or shared among different groups, rather than a technical or efficiency question

Origin / Etymology

Latin distribuere, 'to divide among many' (dis-, 'apart' + tribuere, 'to allot')

Synonyms
Allocative Redistributive
Antonyms
Aggregative
Example Sentence
"Restricting hill-slope construction to prevent Kerala's floods is not a technical decision but a distributive one, since it falls on the households whose principal asset-building route runs through such land."
🎯 UPSC Usage

Useful for GS2/GS3 answers that separate the efficiency question from the fairness question in a policy, e.g., 'the distributive consequences of a carbon tax fall disproportionately on lower-income households unless revenue is recycled progressively.'

Relevant Subjects
Polity
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