Distribution vs Histogram
Both terms below come up in the same part of the course, and students mix them up. Here is each one defined on its own, side by side, so you can see where they part company.
Distribution
Describing data
A distribution describes the possible values a variable takes and how often each value or range of values occurs.
A distribution tells you the pattern of a variable: its center, its spread, and its overall shape. For example, the distribution of quiz scores might cluster near 8 out of 10 with a few low outliers. You often summarize a distribution with a center like the mean or median and a spread like the standard deviation or range. Graphs such as dotplots, histograms, and boxplots let you see a distribution's shape at a glance.
Histogram
Graphs and displays
A histogram displays quantitative data by grouping values into equal-width intervals and drawing a bar for the count in each interval.
A histogram divides the number line into bins of equal width and draws a bar whose height is the frequency in that bin. For example, exam scores might be binned as 60 to 70, 70 to 80, and 80 to 90, with bar heights giving how many scores land in each. Unlike a bar graph, the bars touch because the horizontal axis is a continuous number scale. The bin width you choose affects how smooth or jagged the shape looks.