dispersal
n.the act of spreading things or people over a wide area. It describes how things move away from a central point to different places.
n.the action or process of distributing things or people over a wide area. Often used in biological contexts regarding seeds or in social contexts regarding crowds.
“Wind is a common method for the dispersal of seeds.”
“The police ordered the dispersal of the crowd to prevent the situation from becoming dangerous.”
“Ecologists study the dispersal patterns of invasive species to predict how quickly they might colonize new habitats and outcompete local flora.”
Uncountable when referring to the general process; countable when referring to specific instances or patterns.
“Hampshire Police urged people to avoid the Eastney Landing ferry port area, where the migrants were brought ashore, and said a dispersal order was in place, meaning anyone failing to comply could be arrested.”
“A police dispersal order is in place after hundreds of protesters gathered in Portsmouth.”
From disperse + -al.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.