assign

American  

[uh-sahyn] / əˈsaɪn /

verb (used with object)

• assigns,
  present (3rd person singular)
• assigned,
  past participle,  past
• assigning
  present participle

1. to give or allocate; allot.

   to assign rooms at a hotel.

2. to give out or announce as a task.

   to assign homework.

3. to appoint, as to a post or duty.

   to assign one to guard duty.

4. to designate; name; specify.

   to assign a day for a meeting.

   Synonyms:

   determine, fix

5. to ascribe; attribute; bring forward.

   to assign a cause.

   Synonyms:

   offer, show, advance, allege, adduce

6. Law. to transfer.

   to assign a contract.

7. Military. to place permanently on duty with a unit or under a commander.

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verb (used without object)

• assigns,
  present (3rd person singular)
• assigned,
  past participle,  past
• assigning
  present participle

1. Law. to transfer property, especially in trust or for the benefit of creditors.

noun

• assigns
  plural

1. Law. Usually assigns. a person to whom the property or interest of another is or may be transferred; assignee.

   my heirs and assigns.

assign British  

/ əˈsaɪn /

verb

1. to select for and appoint to a post, etc

   to assign an expert to the job

2. to give out or allot (a task, problem, etc)

   to assign advertising to an expert

3. to set apart (a place, person, time, etc) for a particular function or event

   to assign a day for the meeting

4. to attribute to a specified cause, origin, or source; ascribe

   to assign a stone cross to the Vikings

5. to transfer (one's right, interest, or title to property) to someone else

6. (also intr) law (formerly) to transfer (property) to trustees so that it may be used for the benefit of creditors

7. military to allocate (men or materials) on a permanent basis Compare attach

8. computing to place (a value corresponding to a variable) in a memory location

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noun

1. law a person to whom property is assigned; assignee

Synonym Usage

Assign, allocate, allot mean to apportion or measure out. To assign is to distribute available things, designating them to be given to or reserved for specific persons or purposes: to assign duties. To allocate is to earmark or set aside parts of things available or expected in the future, each for a specific purpose: to allocate income to various types of expenses. To allot implies making restrictions as to amount, size, purpose, etc., and then apportioning or assigning: to allot spaces for parking.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• assignability
  noun
• assigner
  noun
• misassign
  verb
• preassign
  verb (used with object)
• reassign
  verb (used with object)
• assignable
  adjective
• nonassigned
  adjective
• preassigned
  adjective
• self-assigned
  adjective
• unassigned
  adjective
• well-assigned
  adjective
• assignably
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• assigns
  plural

Participles

• assigning
  present
• assigned
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• assign
  simple
• assigns
  simple
• have assigned
  perfect
• has assigned
  perfect
• am assigning
  progressive
• are assigning
  progressive
• is assigning
  progressive
• have been assigning
  perfect progressive
• has been assigning
  perfect progressive

Past

• assigned
  simple
• had assigned
  perfect
• was assigning
  progressive
• were assigning
  progressive
• had been assigning
  perfect progressive

Future

• will assign
  simple
• will have assigned
  perfect
• will be assigning
  progressive
• will have been assigning
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of assign

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English assignen, from Old French assigner, from Latin assignāre; equivalent to as- + sign

Explanation

To assign is to specify something or someone for a specific purpose. If your sisters fight over whose turn it is to sit in the front seat, your parents may have to assign turns. The verb assign also means to transfer legal rights. You assign the deed to your house to new owners when you sell it. If you sort things into categories by characteristics, you are assigning them categories. When you make a budget, you assign each expense a category. Food and housing, for example, may be essential living expenses and medicine and doctor's visits may be health care. Chocolate gets its own category.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

assign assigns assigned assigning

It’s also important not to assign any meaning to a boss’s actions before talking to them, said Tessa West, a psychology professor at New York University and author of the book “Jerks at Work.”

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026

It cannot tell me what level of risk I should assign to that fact.

From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026

"It makes it harder to assign attribution because if all of your attacks and groups are coming out of Iran, you can pretty much link it to Iran," Wright said.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

Reservations are one variable among many; there is no honest way to assign them a precise weight in understanding India’s lag.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

The minders assign all of us special jobs for the Red Cross visit.

From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed

The Federal Communications Commission assigns and oversees licenses for radio and television broadcast frequencies.

From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026

“What we object to is a review that misstates the plan’s contents and reaches beyond the issues the Education Code assigns to the county, all while threatening escalation.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

That number is the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s “heat-sensitivity score,” a rating a computer assigns based on medical conditions and medications that could make someone more susceptible to heat.

From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2026

Macquarie assigns a “medium probability” of modest escalation from here, “but a low probability for a return to a large-scale conflict, absent a serious miscalculation by either side.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

“Mr. Owens assigns a lot of homework, huh?”

From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish

In the years when the Hilltop Youth took shape, Dvir Kariv served as an officer for a special unit of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, assigned to prevent Jewish terrorism.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026

Luke Myer, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, also called for the government to review how funding was assigned.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

The market has assigned confident odds to votes that will be cast after four numbers nobody has seen.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026

About 2,192 firefighters have been assigned to the Timber fire and 661 to the Plaskett fire, with more expected to arrive in the coming days.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026

Presumably I was to wait for a superior officer to come in—a final training, or at least a debriefing of instructions before I was assigned a permanent duty station.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

The second is whether financing terms show lenders assigning it value separately from the rest of the system.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026

Statutory law is assigning the loss at the same moment the market is writing itself out of it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

It is assigning no value whatsoever to these environmental benefits, thereby ignoring the very health concerns the agency was created to address.

From Slate ● Aug. 2, 2026

Boll believes Germany “banned” the film by not assigning it an age rating, fearing it could incite violence, making it unfit for German theatrical release.

From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026

Ms. Solomon wasn’t used to her students assigning themselves homework over the summer.

From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen

Related Words

• accredit
• allow
• appoint
• attach
• authorize
• charge
• commit
• designate
• draft
• elect
• empower
• entrust
• hire
• name
• nominate
• refer
• select