dictionary definition for assignment

• TheFreeDictionary
• Word / Article
• Starts with
• Free toolbar & extensions
• Word of the Day
• Free content

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
• Facebook Share

Definition of 'assignment'

assignment in American English

Assignment in british english, examples of 'assignment' in a sentence assignment, related word partners assignment, trends of assignment.

View usage over: Since Exist Last 10 years Last 50 years Last 100 years Last 300 years

Browse alphabetically assignment

• assigned randomly
• assigned risk
• assimilability
• assimilable
• All ENGLISH words that begin with 'A'

Related terms of assignment

• seat assignment
• tough assignment
• writing assignment
• challenging assignment
• difficult assignment
• View more related words

Quick word challenge

Quiz Review

Score: 0 / 5

Wordle Helper

Scrabble Tools

Synonyms of assignment

• as in lesson
• as in appointment
• More from M-W
• To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

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.

Thesaurus Entries Near assignment

assignments

Cite this Entry

“Assignment.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/assignment. Accessed 21 May. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on assignment

Nglish: Translation of assignment for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of assignment for Arabic Speakers

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

More commonly misspelled words, your vs. you're: how to use them correctly, every letter is silent, sometimes: a-z list of examples, more commonly mispronounced words, how to use em dashes (—), en dashes (–) , and hyphens (-), popular in wordplay, the words of the week - may 17, birds say the darndest things, a great big list of bread words, 10 scrabble words without any vowels, 12 more bird names that sound like insults (and sometimes are), games & quizzes.

• 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

English [ edit ]

Etymology [ edit ].

From Middle English assignement , from Old French assignement .

Pronunciation [ edit ]

• Rhymes: -aɪnmənt

Noun [ edit ]

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 .

Hyponyms [ edit ]

• ( programming ) : augmented assignment

Derived terms [ edit ]

• antiassignment
• assignment operator
• frequency assignment
• misassignment
• nonassignment
• Procrustean assignment
• reassignment
• time-assignment speech interpolation
• unassignment
• understand the assignment

Translations [ edit ]

References [ edit ], chinese [ edit ], alternative forms [ edit ].

• 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 )

Synonyms [ edit ]

• 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 with audio links
• 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
• English 3-syllable words
• 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
• English entries with topic categories using raw markup
• English entries with language name categories using raw markup
• Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations
• Requests for translations into Spanish
• Japanese terms with redundant script codes
• Requests for translations into Mandarin
• Requests for review of Bulgarian translations
• Requests for review of German translations

Navigation menu

• Dictionaries home
• American English
• Collocations
• German-English
• Grammar home
• Practical English Usage
• Learn & Practise Grammar (Beta)
• Word Lists home
• My Word Lists
• Recent additions
• Resources home
• Text Checker

Definition of assign verb from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

Questions about grammar and vocabulary?

Find the answers with Practical English Usage online, your indispensable guide to problems in English.

• 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.

Nearby words

Primary tabs

Assignment is a legal term whereby an individual, the “assignor,” transfers rights, property, or other benefits to another known as the “ assignee .”   This concept is used in both contract and property law.  The term can refer to either the act of transfer or the rights /property/benefits being transferred.

Contract Law   

Under contract law, assignment of a contract is both: (1) an assignment of rights; and (2) a delegation of duties , in the absence of evidence otherwise.  For example, if A contracts with B to teach B guitar for $50, A can assign this contract to C.  That is, this assignment is both: (1) an assignment of A’s rights under the contract to the $50; and (2) a delegation of A’s duty to teach guitar to C.  In this example, A is both the “assignor” and the “delegee” who d elegates the duties to another (C), C is known as the “ obligor ” who must perform the obligations to the assignee , and B is the “ assignee ” who is owed duties and is liable to the “ obligor ”.

(1) Assignment of Rights/Duties Under Contract Law

There are a few notable rules regarding assignments under contract law.  First, if an individual has not yet secured the contract to perform duties to another, he/she cannot assign his/her future right to an assignee .  That is, if A has not yet contracted with B to teach B guitar, A cannot assign his/her rights to C.  Second, rights cannot be assigned when they materially change the obligor ’s duty and rights.  Third, the obligor can sue the assignee directly if the assignee does not pay him/her.  Following the previous example, this means that C ( obligor ) can sue B ( assignee ) if C teaches guitar to B, but B does not pay C $50 in return.

            (2) Delegation of Duties

If the promised performance requires a rare genius or skill, then the delegee cannot delegate it to the obligor.  It can only be delegated if the promised performance is more commonplace.  Further, an obligee can sue if the assignee does not perform.  However, the delegee is secondarily liable unless there has been an express release of the delegee.  That is, if B does want C to teach guitar but C refuses to, then B can sue C.  If C still refuses to perform, then B can compel A to fulfill the duties under secondary liability.

Lastly, a related concept is novation , which is when a new obligor substitutes and releases an old obligor.  If novation occurs, then the original obligor’s duties are wiped out. However, novation requires an original obligee’s consent .  

Property Law

Under property law, assignment typically arises in landlord-tenant situations.  For example, A might be renting from landlord B but wants to another party (C) to take over the property.   In this scenario, A might be able to choose between assigning and subleasing the property to C.  If assigning , A would be giving C the entire balance of the term, with no reversion to anyone whereas if subleasing , A would be giving C for a limited period of the remaining term.  Significantly, under assignment C would have privity of estate with the landlord while under a sublease, C would not. 

[Last updated in May of 2020 by the Wex Definitions Team ]

• business law
• landlord & tenant
• property & real estate law
• trusts, inheritances & estates
• wex definitions

• Search Search Please fill out this field.
• Options and Derivatives
• Strategy & Education

Assignment: Definition in Finance, How It Works, and Examples

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Yarilet Perez is an experienced multimedia journalist and fact-checker with a Master of Science in Journalism. She has worked in multiple cities covering breaking news, politics, education, and more. Her expertise is in personal finance and investing, and real estate.

What Is an Assignment?

Assignment most often refers to one of two definitions in the financial world:

• The transfer of an individual's rights or property to another person or business. This concept exists in a variety of business transactions and is often spelled out contractually.
• In trading, assignment occurs when an option contract is exercised. The owner of the contract exercises the contract and assigns the option writer to an obligation to complete the requirements of the contract.

Key Takeaways

• Assignment is a transfer of rights or property from one party to another.
• Options assignments occur when option buyers exercise their rights to a position in a security.
• Other examples of assignments can be found in wages, mortgages, and leases.

Uses For Assignments

Assignment refers to the transfer of some or all property rights and obligations associated with an asset, property, contract, or other asset of value. to another entity through a written agreement.

Assignment rights happen every day in many different situations. A payee, like a utility or a merchant, assigns the right to collect payment from a written check to a bank. A merchant can assign the funds from a line of credit to a manufacturing third party that makes a product that the merchant will eventually sell. A trademark owner can transfer, sell, or give another person interest in the trademark or logo. A homeowner who sells their house assigns the deed to the new buyer.

To be effective, an assignment must involve parties with legal capacity, consideration, consent, and legality of the object.

A wage assignment is a forced payment of an obligation by automatic withholding from an employee’s pay. Courts issue wage assignments for people late with child or spousal support, taxes, loans, or other obligations. Money is automatically subtracted from a worker's paycheck without consent if they have a history of nonpayment. For example, a person delinquent on $100 monthly loan payments has a wage assignment deducting the money from their paycheck and sent to the lender. Wage assignments are helpful in paying back long-term debts.

Another instance can be found in a mortgage assignment. This is where a mortgage deed gives a lender interest in a mortgaged property in return for payments received. Lenders often sell mortgages to third parties, such as other lenders. A mortgage assignment document clarifies the assignment of contract and instructs the borrower in making future mortgage payments, and potentially modifies the mortgage terms.

A final example involves a lease assignment. This benefits a relocating tenant wanting to end a lease early or a landlord looking for rent payments to pay creditors. Once the new tenant signs the lease, taking over responsibility for rent payments and other obligations, the previous tenant is released from those responsibilities. In a separate lease assignment, a landlord agrees to pay a creditor through an assignment of rent due under rental property leases. The agreement is used to pay a mortgage lender if the landlord defaults on the loan or files for bankruptcy . Any rental income would then be paid directly to the lender.

Options Assignment

Options can be assigned when a buyer decides to exercise their right to buy (or sell) stock at a particular strike price . The corresponding seller of the option is not determined when a buyer opens an option trade, but only at the time that an option holder decides to exercise their right to buy stock. So an option seller with open positions is matched with the exercising buyer via automated lottery. The randomly selected seller is then assigned to fulfill the buyer's rights. This is known as an option assignment.

Once assigned, the writer (seller) of the option will have the obligation to sell (if a call option ) or buy (if a put option ) the designated number of shares of stock at the agreed-upon price (the strike price). For instance, if the writer sold calls they would be obligated to sell the stock, and the process is often referred to as having the stock called away . For puts, the buyer of the option sells stock (puts stock shares) to the writer in the form of a short-sold position.

Suppose a trader owns 100 call options on company ABC's stock with a strike price of $10 per share. The stock is now trading at $30 and ABC is due to pay a dividend shortly. As a result, the trader exercises the options early and receives 10,000 shares of ABC paid at $10. At the same time, the other side of the long call (the short call) is assigned the contract and must deliver the shares to the long.

• Terms of Service
• Editorial Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Your Privacy Choices

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Meaning of assign in English

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

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
• hand something back
• hand something down
• hand something in
• hand something out
• re-equipment
• reassignment

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
• employment agency
• equality, diversity and inclusion
• reinstatement
• relocation expenses
• testimonial

assign verb [T] ( COMPUTING )

• 3-D printing
• adaptive learning
• additive manufacturing
• hexadecimal
• hill climbing
• telerobotics
• word processing

assign verb [T] ( GIVE LEGALLY )

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

Get a quick, free translation!

Word of the Day

ride off into the sunset

to begin a new, happy life at the end of a story

Searching out and tracking down: talking about finding or discovering things

Learn more with +Plus

• Recent and Recommended {{#preferredDictionaries}} {{name}} {{/preferredDictionaries}}
• Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
• Grammar and thesaurus Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English Grammar Thesaurus
• Pronunciation British and American pronunciations with audio English Pronunciation
• English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
• English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
• English–Dutch Dutch–English
• English–French French–English
• English–German German–English
• English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
• English–Italian Italian–English
• English–Japanese Japanese–English
• English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
• English–Polish Polish–English
• English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
• English–Spanish Spanish–English
• English–Swedish Swedish–English
• Dictionary +Plus Word Lists
• assign (CHOOSE)
• assign (SEND)
• assign (COMPUTING)
• assign (GIVE LEGALLY)
• American    Verb
• Business    Verb
• Translations
• All translations

To add assign to a word list please sign up or log in.

Add assign to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

{{message}}

Something went wrong.

There was a problem sending your report.

3471332 - No option to define accounts for business transaction in cash journal in SSCUI 100297.

In SSCUI 100297 - Automatic Account Determination, there is no option to add accounts for business transaction in cash journal but to display only.

Environment

SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Reproducing the Issue

• Open SSCUI 100297 - Automatic Account Determination
• Choose Financial Accounting -> Bank Accounting -> Define Accounts for Business Transactions in Cash Journal
• Input Company Code and Transaction Type

There is no option to add new account assignment but to display only.

SSCUI 101003 -  Maintain Business Transactions can be used to add cash journal business transaction & relevant acct determination.

There are two SSCUIs related to cash journal account determination:

1. SSCUI 101003 -  Maintain Business Transactions - This SSCUI offers the possibility to configure different business transactions in the Cash journal along with the automatic account determination.

2. SSCUI 100297 Automatic Account Determination - In order to keep the idea of having a central place of automatic account determination, in this SSCUI there is possibility of pure assignment of the GL account has been provided (not the configuring of the cash business transactions) .

In general any change of the GL accounts via one of both SSCUIs is always in sync with the other one above.

SSCUI 100297, Define Accounts for Business Transactions in Cash Journal, Transaction Type, Account Assignment, 101003, Maintain Business Transactions. , KBA , FI-FIO-GL-CA-2CL , Cross Application Configuration in General Ledger (Publ Cld) , Problem

Privacy | Terms of use | Legal Disclosure | Copyright | Trademark