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

“But when you get a mountain collapse with a glacier and this kind of cataclysm, you cannot assign a likelihood to it,” Biedermann said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

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

Each member state must anonymously assign each candidate one of three labels: "encourage," "discourage," or "no opinion."

From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026

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

From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026

It was a short list, but still I managed to mispronounce IBM and assign the wrong gender to both the floor waxer and the typewriter.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

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

From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026

AMD plans to sell Taalas technology inside systems alongside its Instinct GPUs, and a lender financing the whole rack reveals nothing about what it assigns to the model-specific part.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 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

When I can find no more surfaces to wipe and have finally exhausted the supply of rooms, Maddy assigns me to do the kitchen floor.

From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich

There were seats assigned by state and indicated by tall signs on poles, there was a host of precisely timed and deeply forgettable speeches by elected officials, and, of course, there was a keynote speaker.

From Slate ● Sep. 10, 2026

The Police Ombudsman said when interviewed by its investigators, the police officer initially assigned to the case said she would have obtained the outstanding witness statements if she had kept ownership of the investigation.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026

In May, the California Supreme Court ordered the attorney general’s office to respond to the arguments and assigned the case to a superior court.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

When social unrest arises, it can be difficult in the chaos to know how much responsibility can be assigned to the RSS or its affiliates, and RSS members frequently claim misattribution from their political adversaries.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

The young man—one of our workers—had barely been assigned a chair when again the bell sounded.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

The findings also underscore the risks of assigning identities to extinct animals primarily from their physical appearance.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 8, 2026

The law, if approved, would work by assigning a “job retention credit” of $20,000 per journalist for up to five positions, and after that $15,000 for every additional journalist.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

What doesn’t change is our impulse to explain complicated social and economic changes by assigning a personality to an entire generation.

From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026

He is responsible for editing and assigning breaking and fast-moving stories for WSJ's digital audience, covering national events, local news and business.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

As they are assigning positions, Dede notices that her sister Minerva is not among them.

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez

Related Words

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