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as·sign·ment

As•sign•ment.

An assignment is a task that someone is given to do, usually as part of their job.

An assignment is also a piece of academic work given to students.

In American English, an assignment is also a piece of work given to students to do at home.

Work given to schoolchildren to do at home is also called homework .

Be Careful! Homework is an uncountable noun. You do not talk about 'homeworks' or 'a homework'. Note that you do not say ' I have made my homework '. You say 'I have done my homework'.

• admeasurement
• all nighter
• annual training
• anthropopathism
• anthropopathy
• anthropophuism
• anthropopsychism
• appointment
• apportionment
• apportionment (air)
• assignation
• Assignment of dower
• assibilation
• Assideanism
• assiduously
• assiduousness
• assignability
• assigned risk
• assimilability
• assimilable
• assimilating
• assimilation
• assimilationism
• assimilationist
• assimilative
• assimilator
• assimilatory
• Assimulation
• Assiniboine
• Assiniboine Mount
• Assiniboine River
• assistance dog
• assistance mechanism
• assigned to you
• assigning to
• Assignment (computer science)
• Assignment (education)
• Assignment (law)
• Assignment Action Number
• Assignment and Analysis of Broadband Spectra
• Assignment and Justification Questionnaire
• Assignment and Lease
• Assignment and Licensing System
• Assignment and Transmittal Document
• Assignment Area
• Assignment Availability Code
• Assignment by Choice
• Assignment Capsule
• Assignment Capsules
• Assignment Clause, Life Insurance
• Assignment Completed
• Assignment Consideration
• Assignment Control Authority
• Assignment Control Number
• Assignment Coordination Group
• Assignment Data Card
• Assignment Date
• Assignment Eligibility & Availability
• Assignment for benefit of creditors
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• 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 . By surface analysis , assign +‎ -ment .

Pronunciation

• IPA ( key ) : /əˈsaɪnmənt/

Hyphenation: a‧ssign‧ment

• 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

Translations

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 mɐn²¹/
• ( Hong Kong Cantonese ) assignment ; homework ; coursework ( Classifier : 份 c )
• Bauer, Robert S. ( 2021 ) ABC Cantonese-English Comprehensive Dictionary , Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, →ISBN , page 10
• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

• English terms inherited from Middle English
• English terms derived from Middle English
• English terms derived from Old French
• English terms suffixed with -ment
• English 3-syllable words
• English terms with IPA pronunciation
• English terms with audio pronunciation
• Rhymes:English/aɪnmənt
• Rhymes:English/aɪnmənt/3 syllables
• English lemmas
• English nouns
• English uncountable nouns
• English countable nouns
• English terms with usage examples
• en:Education
• en:Programming
• en:Directives
• Cantonese terms borrowed from English
• Cantonese terms derived from English
• Chinese lemmas
• Cantonese lemmas
• Chinese nouns
• Cantonese nouns
• Chinese terms with IPA pronunciation
• Chinese terms written in foreign scripts
• Hong Kong Cantonese
• Chinese nouns classified by 份
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Definition of 'assign'

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assign in British English

Assign in american english, examples of 'assign' in a sentence assign, cobuild collocations assign, trends of assign.

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In other languages assign

• American English : assign / əˈsaɪn /
• Brazilian Portuguese : delegar
• Chinese : 布置 任务
• European Spanish : asignar
• French : donner
• German : zuteilen
• Italian : assegnare
• Japanese : 割り当てる
• Korean : 할당하다
• European Portuguese : delegar
• Latin American Spanish : asignar
• Thai : มอบหมาย

Browse alphabetically assign

• assiduousness
• assign a code
• assign a function
• assign a judge
• All ENGLISH words that begin with 'A'

Related terms of assign

• assign blame
• assign staff
• assign meaning
• assign seating
• View more related words

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Synonyms of assignment

• as in lesson
• as in appointment
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Thesaurus Definition of assignment

Synonyms & Similar Words

• responsibility
• undertaking
• requirement
• designation
• appointment
• authorization
• installment
• installation
• destination
• emplacement
• investiture
• singling (out)

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• dethronement

Synonym Chooser

How does the noun assignment contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of assignment are chore , duty , job , stint , and task . While all these words mean "a piece of work to be done," assignment implies a definite limited task assigned by one in authority.

When is it sensible to use chore instead of assignment ?

While the synonyms chore and assignment are close in meaning, chore implies a minor routine activity necessary for maintaining a household or farm.

When is duty a more appropriate choice than assignment ?

Although the words duty and assignment have much in common, duty implies an obligation to perform or responsibility for performance.

When might job be a better fit than assignment ?

The synonyms job and assignment are sometimes interchangeable, but job applies to a piece of work voluntarily performed; it may sometimes suggest difficulty or importance.

When could stint be used to replace assignment ?

In some situations, the words stint and assignment are roughly equivalent. However, stint implies a carefully allotted or measured quantity of assigned work or service.

When can task be used instead of assignment ?

The meanings of task and assignment largely overlap; however, task implies work imposed by a person in authority or an employer or by circumstance.

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.

Thesaurus Entries Near assignment

assignments

Cite this Entry

“Assignment.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/assignment. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.

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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Meaning of assign in English

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assign verb [T] ( CHOOSE )

• Every available officer will be assigned to the investigation .
• The textbooks were assigned by the course director .
• Part of the group were assigned to clear land mines .
• Each trainee is assigned a mentor who will help them learn more about the job .
• We were assigned an interpreter for the duration of our stay .
• accommodate
• accommodate someone with something
• administration
• arm someone with something
• be good for something idiom
• go around phrasal verb
• go round phrasal verb
• hand something around phrasal verb
• hand something back phrasal verb
• put something on phrasal verb
• re-equipment

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

assign verb [T] ( SEND )

• She was assigned to the Paris office .
• All the team were assigned to Poland.
• advertisement
• recruitment
• recruitment drive
• reinstatement
• speculative

assign verb [T] ( COMPUTING )

• 3-D printing
• adaptive learning
• additive manufacturing
• hallucination
• hallucinatory
• systems analysis
• techno-solutionism

assign verb [T] ( GIVE LEGALLY )

Phrasal verb, assign | american dictionary, assign | business english, examples of assign, translations of assign.

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Word of the Day

soft, loose clothing that is worn in bed and consists of trousers and a type of shirt

Cooking or hitting the books? (Idioms with ‘book’)

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• assign (CHOOSE)
• assign (SEND)
• assign (COMPUTING)
• assign (GIVE LEGALLY)
• American    Verb
• Business    Verb
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Definition of assign verb from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

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• 3 [ usually passive ] assign somebody to somebody/something to send a person to work under the authority of someone or in a particular group I was assigned to B platoon.
• 4 to say that something has a particular value or function, or happens at a particular time or place assign something to something Assign a different color to each different type of information. assign something sth The painting cannot be assigned an exact date.
• 5 assign something to somebody ( law ) to say that your property or rights now belong to someone else The agreement assigns copyright to the publisher. She has assigned the lease to her daughter.

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