- 1.1 Etymology
- 1.2 Pronunciation
- 1.3.1 Hyponyms
- 1.3.2 Derived terms
- 1.3.3 Translations
- 1.4 References
- 2.1 Alternative forms
- 2.2 Etymology
- 2.3 Pronunciation
- 2.4.1 Synonyms
- 2.5 References
From Middle English assignement , from Old French assignement .
Pronunciation
- IPA ( key ) : /əˈsaɪnmənt/
Hyphenation: a‧ssign‧ment
| Audio ( ): | ( ) |
- Rhymes: -aɪnmənt
assignment ( countable and uncountable , plural assignments )
- The act of assigning ; the allocation of a job or a set of tasks . This flow chart represents the assignment of tasks in our committee.
- ( LGBT ) The categorization of persons as belonging to the male or female sex .
- An assigned task . The assignment the department gave him proved to be quite challenging.
- A position to which someone is assigned. Unbeknownst to Mr Smith, his new assignment was in fact a demotion.
- ( education ) A task given to students, such as homework or coursework . Mrs Smith gave out our assignments , and said we had to finish them by Monday.
- ( law ) A transfer of a right or benefit from one person to another. The assignment of the lease has not been finalised yet.
- ( law ) A document that effects this transfer. Once you receive the assignment in the post, be sure to sign it and send it back as soon as possible.
- ( programming ) An operation that assigns a value to a variable .
- ( programming ) : augmented assignment
Derived terms
- antiassignment
- assignment operator
- frequency assignment
- misassignment
- nonassignment
- Procrustean assignment
- reassignment
- time-assignment speech interpolation
- unassignment
- understand the assignment
Alternative forms
- asm ( pseudo-acronym )
From English assignment .
- Cantonese ( Jyutping ) : aa 6 saai 1 man 4
- Jyutping : aa 6 saai 1 man 4
- Yale : ah s ā ai màhn
- Cantonese Pinyin : aa 6 saai 1 man 4
- Guangdong Romanization : a 6 sai 1 men 4
- Sinological IPA ( key ) : /aː²² saːi̯ ⁵⁵ mɐn ²¹ /
- ( Hong Kong Cantonese ) assignment ; homework ; coursework ( Classifier : 份 c )
| Variety | Location | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Formal ) | , | |
| Northeastern Mandarin | , | |
| Cantonese | , , | |
| Hakka | , | |
| , | ||
| , | ||
| , | ||
| , | ||
| Southern Min | ||
- Bauer, Robert S. ( 2021 ) ABC Cantonese-English Comprehensive Dictionary , Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, →ISBN , page 10
- English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese
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- assignment (noun)
- My assignment was to clean the equipment. = They gave me the assignment of cleaning the equipment.
- The students were given a homework assignment .
- The reporter's assignment is to interview the candidate.
- The reporter is here on an assignment .
- The reporter is here on assignment .
- The article discusses the recent assignment of senators to some of the more powerful committees.
- her assignment to the embassy in India
- the computer's assignment of a number to each image
- the assignment of blame/responsibility
- the assignment of property
- She asked if she could change her seating assignment .
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Definition of assignment
task , duty , job , chore , stint , assignment mean a piece of work to be done.
task implies work imposed by a person in authority or an employer or by circumstance.
duty implies an obligation to perform or responsibility for performance.
job applies to a piece of work voluntarily performed; it may sometimes suggest difficulty or importance.
chore implies a minor routine activity necessary for maintaining a household or farm.
stint implies a carefully allotted or measured quantity of assigned work or service.
assignment implies a definite limited task assigned by one in authority.
Examples of assignment in a Sentence
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'assignment.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
see assign entry 1
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Phrases Containing assignment
- self - assignment
Dictionary Entries Near assignment
Cite this entry.
“Assignment.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assignment. Accessed 22 Aug. 2024.
Legal Definition
Legal definition of assignment, more from merriam-webster on assignment.
Nglish: Translation of assignment for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of assignment for Arabic Speakers
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/əˈsaɪnmənt/.
Other forms: assignments
Whether you’re an international spy with a new mission or a high school student with math homework — when you get an assignment , you’d better do it! An assignment is a task that someone in authority has asked you to do.
The word assignment is just the noun form of the common verb assign , which you use when you want to give someone a duty or a job. When you assign something, that something is called an assignment . The word can also refer to the act of distributing something. If you are distributing new office furniture at work, you might say, “ Assignment of the new chairs will begin tomorrow.”
- noun an undertaking that you have been assigned to do (as by an instructor) see more see less types: show 6 types... hide 6 types... school assignment , schoolwork a school task performed by a student to satisfy the teacher writing assignment , written assignment an assignment to write something classroom project a school task requiring considerable effort classwork the part of a student's work that is done in the classroom homework , prep , preparation preparatory school work done outside school (especially at home) lesson a task assigned for individual study type of: labor , project , task , undertaking any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted
- noun a duty that you are assigned to perform (especially in the armed forces) “a hazardous assignment ” synonyms: duty assignment see more see less types: show 10 types... hide 10 types... guard , guard duty , sentry duty , sentry go the duty of serving as a sentry fatigue , fatigue duty labor of a nonmilitary kind done by soldiers (cleaning or digging or draining or so on) charge , commission , mission a special assignment that is given to a person or group reassignment assignment to a different duty sea-duty , service abroad , shipboard duty naval service aboard a ship at sea shore duty naval service at land bases fool's errand a fruitless mission mission impossible an extremely dangerous or difficult mission martyr operation , sacrifice operation , suicide mission killing or injuring others while annihilating yourself; usually accomplished with a bomb secondment the detachment of a person from their regular organization for temporary assignment elsewhere type of: duty work that you are obliged to perform for moral or legal reasons
- noun the act of putting a person into a non-elective position synonyms: appointment , designation , naming see more see less types: show 6 types... hide 6 types... nomination the act of officially naming a candidate co-optation , co-option the act of appointing summarily (with or without the appointee's consent) delegacy the appointment of a delegate ordinance , ordination the act of ordaining; the act of conferring (or receiving) holy orders recognition designation by the chair granting a person the right to speak in a deliberative body laying on of hands laying hands on a person's head to invoke spiritual blessing in Christian ordination type of: conclusion , decision , determination the act of making up your mind about something
- noun the act of distributing something to designated places or persons “the first task is the assignment of an address to each datum” synonyms: assigning see more see less types: allocation , storage allocation (computer science) the assignment of particular areas of a magnetic disk to particular data or instructions type of: distribution the act of distributing or spreading or apportioning
- noun (law) a transfer of property by deed of conveyance synonyms: grant see more see less types: apanage , appanage a grant (by a sovereign or a legislative body) of resources to maintain a dependent member of a ruling family land grant a grant of public land (as to a railway or college) type of: transferred possession , transferred property a possession whose ownership changes or lapses
- noun the instrument by which a claim or right or interest or property is transferred from one person to another see more see less type of: instrument , legal document , legal instrument , official document (law) a document that states some contractual relationship or grants some right
Vocabulary lists containing assignment
The Dawes Act, or General Allotment Act of 1887, was a law that allowed the U.S. government to take Native American tribal lands and divide them into 40 acre lots for individual Native Americans. The goal was to break up communal tribal lands and speed the assimilation of Native Americans into American society. The Dawes Act caused great suffering with much of the land winding up in the hands of white settlers.
Learn these words from the autobiography by David Lubar (Inside: Level B, Unit 4). Here are our links to the selections of "Every Body Is a Winner": The Human Machine; My Fabulous Footprint , The Beat Goes On; All Pumped Up , Two Left Feet, Two Left Hands , How Coach Told Me; Bionics Here are our links to the units of Level B: Unit 1 , Unit 2 , Unit 3 , Unit 4 , Unit 5 , Unit 6 , Unit 7 , Unit 8 Here are our links to the Inside books: Level A , Level B , Level C Here is our link to a list of academic vocabulary for Inside: Academic Vocabulary
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Meaning of assignment in English
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- It was a plum assignment - more of a vacation really.
- He took this award-winning photograph while on assignment in the Middle East .
- His two-year assignment to the Mexico office starts in September .
- She first visited Norway on assignment for the winter Olympics ten years ago.
- He fell in love with the area after being there on assignment for National Geographic in the 1950s.
- act as something
- all work and no play (makes Jack a dull boy) idiom
- be at work idiom
- be in work idiom
- housekeeping
- in the line of duty idiom
- join duty idiom
- undertaking
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
assignment | Intermediate English
Assignment | business english, examples of assignment, collocations with assignment.
These are words often used in combination with assignment .
Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.
Translations of assignment
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Word of the Day
be on the side of the angels
to be doing something good or kind
Trial, judge, and jury: talking about what happens when a criminal is caught
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Assignment vs Assignation - What's the difference?
As nouns the difference between assignment and assignation, assignation, usage notes.
IMAGES
COMMENTS
Assignment (housing law), a concept that allows the transfer of a tenancy from one person to another. Assignment (law), a transfer of rights between two parties. Along with clearing, a stage in exercising a financial option. General assignment or Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, an alternative to bankruptcy for businesses that's ...
Assignment[ a] is a legal term used in the context of the laws of contract and of property. In both instances, assignment is the process whereby a person, the assignor, transfers rights or benefits to another, the assignee. [ 1] An assignment may not transfer a duty, burden or detriment without the express agreement of the assignee.
Assignment (computer science) In computer programming, an assignment statement sets and/or re-sets the value stored in the storage location (s) denoted by a variable name; in other words, it copies a value into the variable. In most imperative programming languages, the assignment statement (or expression) is a fundamental construct.
ASSIGNMENT definition: 1. a piece of work given to someone, typically as part of their studies or job: 2. a job that…. Learn more.
Unbeknownst to Mr Smith, his new assignment was in fact a demotion. ( education) A task given to students, such as homework or coursework . Mrs Smith gave out our assignments, and said we had to finish them by Monday. ( law) A transfer of a right or benefit from one person to another.
1. : a job or duty that is given to someone : a task someone is required to do. [count] My assignment was to clean the equipment. = They gave me the assignment of cleaning the equipment. The students were given a homework assignment. The reporter's assignment is to interview the candidate. The reporter is here on an assignment.
Assignment definition: something assigned, as a particular task or duty. See examples of ASSIGNMENT used in a sentence.
The meaning of ASSIGNMENT is the act of assigning something. How to use assignment in a sentence. Synonym Discussion of Assignment.
assignment: 1 n an undertaking that you have been assigned to do (as by an instructor) Types: show 6 types... hide 6 types... school assignment , schoolwork a school task performed by a student to satisfy the teacher writing assignment , written assignment an assignment to write something classroom project a school task requiring considerable ...
7 meanings: 1. something that has been assigned, such as a mission or task 2. a position or post to which a person is assigned.... Click for more definitions.
Student assignments can help improve Wikipedia, but they can also cause the encyclopedia more harm than good when not directed properly. Volunteer editors are sometimes left with a mess and the burden of fixing poor-quality edits, cleaning up or reverting original research, merging content forks, and deleting articles. Even experienced Wikipedia editors who are classroom instructors have had ...
assignment meaning, definition, what is assignment: a piece of work that is given to someone...: Learn more. ... • The assignments will include typing of varying difficulty from printed and manuscript copy. • the assignment of chores • He was supposed to be the leader in this assignment, ...
assignment meaning: a piece of work or job that you are given to do: . Learn more.
Assignment (computer science) In the context of programming and computer science, an assignment operator is a symbol or operator used to assign a value to a variable. It is a fundamental concept in most programming languages. It is used to store a value in a variable so that it can be manipulated and used in computations later in the code.
The formal definition of the assignment problem (or linear assignment problem) is . Given two sets, A and T, together with a weight function C : A × T → R.Find a bijection f : A → T such that the cost function: (, ())is minimized. Usually the weight function is viewed as a square real-valued matrix C, so that the cost function is written down as: , The problem is "linear" because the cost ...
ASSIGNMENT meaning: 1. a piece of work given to someone, typically as part of their studies or job: 2. a job that…. Learn more.
Assignment definition: something assigned, as a particular task or duty. See examples of ASSIGNMENT used in a sentence.
Noun. ( en noun ) The act of assigning; the allocation of a job or a set of tasks. This flow chart represents the assignment of tasks in our committee. The categorization of something as belonging to a specific category. We should not condone the assignment of asylum seekers to that of people smugglers. An assigned task.
The formal definition of the quadratic assignment problem is as follows: Given two sets, P ("facilities") and L ("locations"), of equal size, together with a weight function w : P × P → R and a distance function d : L × L → R.Find the bijection f : P → L ("assignment") such that the cost function:, (,) ((), ()) is minimized. Usually weight and distance functions are viewed as square ...
Assignment definition: The act of assigning. True to my assignment, I recorded movements and time until Quinn's voice from below broke the silence.
A general assignment or assignment is a concept in bankruptcy law in which an insolvent entity's assets are assigned to someone as an alternative to a bankruptcy. One form is an "assignment for the benefit of creditors", abbreviated ABC or AFBC. ... The creditors are the assignee's top priority, not shareholders. Shareholders by definition have ...
Random assignment or random placement is an experimental technique for assigning human participants or animal subjects to different groups in an experiment (e.g., a treatment group versus a control group) using randomization, such as by a chance procedure (e.g., flipping a coin) or a random number generator. [1] This ensures that each participant or subject has an equal chance of being placed ...
The Rayo function of a natural number , notated as (), is the smallest number bigger than every finite number with the following property: there is a formula () in the language of first-order set-theory (as presented in the definition of ) with less than symbols and as its only free variable such that: (a) there is a variable assignment assigning to such that ([()],), and (b) for any variable ...