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• assembly
  assembly

  noun

  an assembling or coming together of a number of persons, usually for a particular purpose.
• Assembly
  Assembly

  noun

  the lower chamber in various American state legislatures See also House of Assembly legislative assembly National Assembly

assembly

American  

[uh-sem-blee] / əˈsɛm bli /

noun

• assemblies
  plural

1. an assembling or coming together of a number of persons, usually for a particular purpose.

   The principal will speak to all the students at Friday's assembly.

   Synonyms:

   meeting, congress, gathering, assemblage

2. a group of persons gathered together, usually for a particular purpose, whether religious, political, educational, or social.

   Synonyms:

   throng, meeting, congress, gathering, assemblage

3. (often initial capital letter) a legislative body, especially the lower house of the legislature in certain states of the U.S..

   a bill before the assembly; the New York State Assembly.

   Synonyms:

   congress

4. Military.

   1. a signal, as by drum or bugle, for troops to fall into ranks or otherwise assemble.

   2. the movement of forces, tanks, soldiers, etc., scattered by battle or battle drill, toward and into a small area.

5. the putting together of complex machinery, as airplanes, from interchangeable parts of standard dimensions.

6. Machinery. a group of machine parts, especially one forming a self-contained, independently mounted unit.

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assembly ¹ British  

/ əˈsɛmblɪ /

noun

1. a number of people gathered together, esp for a formal meeting held at regular intervals

2. the act of assembling or the state of being assembled

3. the process of putting together a number of parts to make a machine or other product

4. machinery a group of mating components before or after fitting together

5. military

   1. a signal for personnel to assemble, as by drum, bugle, etc

   2. ( as modifier )

      an assembly area

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Assembly ² British  

/ əˈsɛmblɪ /

noun

1. the lower chamber in various American state legislatures See also House of Assembly legislative assembly National Assembly

2. short for General Assembly

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Usage

What does assembly mean? An assembly is a gathering of people, usually for some specific reason, as in The preacher gave a sermon before the assembly. Assembly is used to refer to a group of people who have gathered together. Usually, the people have a reason to come together such as for religious, political, or social purposes. Assembly can also refer to the gathering or coming together of people, as in The principal organized an assembly of all of the parents. Assembly can also refer to a legislative body in which politicians gather to perform the political process. In this case, assembly is often capitalized when it’s a part of the name of the body, as in The bill was discussed by the California State Assembly. Lastly, assembly can refer to the act of putting something together or fitting parts together, as in Jorge helped his granddaughter with the assembly of the model airplane. Assembly comes from the verb assemble, which usually means to gather things or people together, as in The players assembled into a group huddle. Example: The police chief spoke to an assembly of citizens concerned about theft in the neighborhood.

Synonym Usage

See convention.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• preassembly
  noun
• reassembly
  noun
• self-assembly
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• assemblies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of assembly

1275–1325; Middle English assemblee < Middle French, literally, (that which is) assembled, feminine past participle of assembler to assemble

Explanation

Use the noun assembly to refer group of people meeting up for a mutual purpose, such as a church service. Often used to describing a gathering of people, the word assembly can also refer to putting something together, such as a machine or a piece of furniture. No matter if the individual components are people or objects, assembly implies a bringing together. You may be familiar with the term "freedom of assembly," which is considered a basic human right. It means that people are free to peacefully gather together to protest the government, to worship, to hold a public meeting . . . or even to play poker. This allows people to exchange information and pursue mutual goals.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

assembly Assembly assemblies

It can be used to automate an assembly line, to compensate for a gap in the user’s skills, or to augment and sharpen individual creativity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

BE Semiconductor Industries, the Dutch supplier of semiconductor assembly equipment, is up 0.4%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

Iran began work at Pickaxe Mountain after the sabotage at an Iranian centrifuge assembly facility in 2020.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

The High Court also heard earlier this year that there were no plans by the Department for Communities to implement an Irish language strategy before the next assembly election.

From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026

On the way out of the assembly, he took the shoes.

From "Facing the Lion" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and Herman Viola

Last year, Axios and the Assembly reported on emails obtained via public-records requests to the university that showed Belichick had asked UNC communications staff to copy Hudson on his emails.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon and veteran progressive Senator Bernie Sanders are due to speak at the "Pro-Human Assembly" in Washington on Tuesday.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

Liz Rutgersson was named CEO of Stagwell’s Assembly, promising to seek clients that can help the agency grow, even if they aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

Sher reasoned that Mountjoy had to make up his mind — stay in the Assembly or move to the Senate.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

Once Brinker turned to me and said, “Go back to the Assembly Room and see if there’s any kind of blanket on the platform.”

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

Reactor 2 was taken offline on August 4 for refuelling, during which 20 of the 121 fuel assemblies in the reactor core were replaced.

From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026

Producing these assemblies is considerably more difficult, and only recently have enough species been analyzed at this level to make a broad comparison across the animal kingdom possible.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026

A compelling model comes from the burgeoning global movement of citizens’ assemblies — deliberative bodies in which a randomly selected, representative cross-section of the public is convened to consider complex policy questions.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026

Some still contain binocular assemblies manufactured by Bausch + Lomb generations ago.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026

Every February my classmates and I were herded into assemblies for a ritual review of the Civil Rights Movement.

From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates