数学分析中的分布是广义函数的一种，由法国数学家洛朗·施瓦茨首先于二十世纪五十年代引入。分布推广了普通意义上的函数概念。对于普通意义上不可导甚至不连续的函数，可以具备分布意义上的导数。事实上，任意局部可积的函数都有分布意义上的弱导数。在偏微分方程的研究中，常常使用分布来表示方程的广义解函数，因为很多时候传统意义上的解函数不存在或难以求出。分布理论在物理学和工程学中都十分有用，因为在应用中常会出现解或初始条件是分布的微分方程，例如初始条件可能是一个狄拉克δ分布。

广义函数的概念最早由谢尔盖·索伯列夫在1935年提出。1940年代末，施瓦茨等人开始创建分布理论，首次提出了一个系统清晰的广义函数理论。

Distributions (or generalized functions) are objects that generalize the classical notion of functions in mathematical analysis. Distributions make it possible to differentiate functions whose derivatives do not exist in the classical sense. In particular, any locally integrable function has a distributional derivative. Distributions are widely used in the theory of partial differential equations, where it may be easier to establish the existence of distributional solutions than classical solutions, or appropriate classical solutions may not exist. Distributions are also important in physics and engineering where many problems naturally lead to differential equations whose solutions or initial conditions are distributions, such as the Dirac delta function (which is historically called a "function" even though it is not considered a genuine function mathematically).