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assign

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To allot or give as a task.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

uhsyn

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

əˈsaɪn

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. Give an assignment to (a person) to a post, or assign a task to (a person)

  2. transitive

    To allot or give (something) as a task.

  3. transitive

    To designate or set apart (something) for some purpose.

  4. transitive

    To appoint or select (someone) for some office.

  5. Give out

  6. Attribute or give

noun

  1. An assignee.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Give an assignment to (a person) to a post, or assign a task to (a person)

Used this way, assign is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • depute , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use assign

  • “The teacher assigned him to lead his classmates in the exercise.”verb
  • “The biologist assigned the mushroom to the proper class.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

assign values

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • assignedadjectiveInflected form

    Appointed to a post or duty.

  • assigningnounInflected form

    The act of distributing something to designated places or persons.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • assignmentnounDerived noun

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

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • assigneenounRelated term

    The party to whom something is assigned (e.g., someone to whom a right or property is legally transferred).

  • duty assignmentnounRelated term

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

  • reading assignmentnounRelated term

    The reading of a passage assigned by the teacher.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: give an assignment to (a person) to a post

allot

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.