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Assign Very Common

Assign has 10 different meanings across 1 category:

Verb

Definitions
Noun
1

An assignee.

"The company appointed him as an assignee to handle all their overseas contracts."

Verb
1

give an assignment to (a person) to a post, or assign a task to (a person)

"The manager decided to assign John to the new marketing position after his successful project."

2

give out

"We were assigned new uniforms"

3

attribute or credit to

"We attributed this quotation to Shakespeare"

"People impute great cleverness to cats"

4

select something or someone for a specific purpose

"The teacher assigned him to lead his classmates in the exercise"

5

attribute or give

"She put too much emphasis on her the last statement"

"He put all his efforts into this job"

"The teacher put an interesting twist to the interpretation of the story"

6

make undue claims to having

"He was accused of assigning all the credit for the project's success solely to himself while ignoring his team's contributions."

7

transfer one's right to

"After paying off his debt, John assigned his right to receive the remaining insurance payout to his wife."

8

decide as to where something belongs in a scheme

"The biologist assigned the mushroom to the proper class"

9

To designate or set apart something for some purpose.

"The teacher assigned a quiet corner of the library as a study area for the exam week."

In plain English: To assign something means to give it to someone else as their job, task, or responsibility.

"The teacher will assign homework for tonight."

Usage: Use assign to indicate giving someone specific duties, tasks, or roles rather than general responsibilities. This verb is commonly confused with the noun assignment when referring to schoolwork or projects given by a teacher.

Example Sentences
"The teacher will assign homework for tonight." verb
"The teacher will assign extra homework to students who struggle with the material." verb
"My boss asked me to assign specific tasks to each member of the team." verb
"I decided to assign my favorite book to my younger cousin for her birthday." verb
See Also
appoint overgenerate preassign transfer category relegate dispose reassign
Related Terms
Broader Terms (hypernyms)
appoint distribute evaluate choose use claim transfer
Narrower Terms (hyponyms)
mandate cast post devolve task place regiment transfer delegate promote demote allow allocate impute sensualize credit reattribute anthropomorphize personify accredit blame project internalize dedicate detail repose relegate

Origin

The word assign comes from the Latin verb assignare, which literally means "to mark" or "to sign." It entered English through Middle English and Old French to describe the act of designating someone for a specific role or task.

Rhyming Words
ign lign sign align gsign coign reign teign feign deign ensign benign unsign indign obsign sdeign v sign design resign eloign
Compare
Assign vs