complementary distribution
Noun
Meaning
(linguistics) a distribution of related speech sounds or forms in such a way that they only appear in different contexts
Source: WordNetSynonyms
Antonyms
Hypernyms
Examples
Step 3, discover which sets are in complementary distribution During the late 18th to late 19th century, two major developments improved the method's effectiveness.
The two forms are mostly in complementary distribution – certain contexts call for one, and certain contexts for the other; they are not normally interchangeable, except in occasional instances like after the verb help, where either can be used.
This is not straightforward because the maximum difference between two joint cumulative distribution functions is not generally the same as the maximum difference of any of the complementary distribution functions.