ASSIGNMENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does assignment mean? 

• ASSIGNMENT (noun)
  The noun ASSIGNMENT has 6 senses:

1. a duty that you are assigned to perform (especially in the armed forces)

2. the instrument by which a claim or right or interest or property is transferred from one person to another

3. the act of distributing something to designated places or persons

4. (law) a transfer of property by deed of conveyance

5. an undertaking that you have been assigned to do (as by an instructor)

6. the act of putting a person into a non-elective position

  Familiarity information: ASSIGNMENT used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASSIGNMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A duty that you are assigned to perform (especially in the armed forces)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

assignment; duty assignment

Context example:

hazardous duty

Hypernyms ("assignment" is a kind of...):

duty (work that you are obliged to perform for moral or legal reasons)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "assignment"):

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)

Derivation:

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

The instrument by which a claim or right or interest or property is transferred from one person to another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("assignment" is a kind of...):

instrument; legal document; legal instrument; official document ((law) a document that states some contractual relationship or grants some right)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Derivation:

assign (transfer one's right to)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of distributing something to designated places or persons

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

assigning; assignment

Context example:

the first task is the assignment of an address to each datum

Hypernyms ("assignment" is a kind of...):

distribution (the act of distributing or spreading or apportioning)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "assignment"):

allocation; storage allocation ((computer science) the assignment of particular areas of a magnetic disk to particular data or instructions)

Derivation:

assign (decide as to where something belongs in a scheme)

Sense 4

Meaning:

(law) a transfer of property by deed of conveyance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

assignment; grant

Hypernyms ("assignment" is a kind of...):

transferred possession; transferred property (a possession whose ownership changes or lapses)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "assignment"):

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))

Derivation:

assign (transfer one's right to)

Sense 5

Meaning:

An undertaking that you have been assigned to do (as by an instructor)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("assignment" is a kind of...):

labor; project; task; undertaking (any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "assignment"):

school assignment; schoolwork (a school task performed by a student to satisfy the teacher)

writing assignment; written assignment (an assignment to write something)

Derivation:

assign (select something or someone for a specific purpose)

Sense 6

Meaning:

The act of putting a person into a non-elective position

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

appointment; assignment; designation; naming

Context example:

the appointment had to be approved by the whole committee

Hypernyms ("assignment" is a kind of...):

conclusion; decision; determination (the act of making up your mind about something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "assignment"):

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)

Derivation:

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

 Context examples 

Again, more assignments are likely to zing through your window and you will find it thrilling when they do, because guess what—more money will be on the way to you.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Named or selected to an assignment.

(Designated, NCI Thesaurus)

Assignment of NSC numbers was never done in a way that would guarantee one and only one NSC number would be assigned to a particular substance.

(NSC Number, NCI Thesaurus)

A type of study that stipulates both the health provider and the subject be aware of the drug or treatment assignment.

(Open label study, NCI Thesaurus)

Position or arrangement, as of the teeth; the state of being placed or arranged, as the assignment of a person to a appropriate clinical study.

(Placement, NCI Thesaurus)

The assignment of the intervention may or may not be random.

(Interventional Study, NCI Thesaurus)

The assignments are result of human logic application and are not native to the symbols of the formal language.

(Interpretation, NCI Thesaurus)

An indication that the subject has been unable to fulfill the criteria required for assignment into a randomized group.

(Failure to Meet Randomization Criteria, NCI Thesaurus)

This may include special class placement, extra help with class assignments and tests, tutoring, and other services such as counseling, speech therapy, and physical therapy.

(IEP, NCI Dictionary)

The entity that oversees global IP address allocation, root zone management for the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Internet protocol assignments.

(Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, NCI Thesaurus)