# assignment

/əˈsaɪnmənt/ (US) · /ɐsˈaɪnmənt/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/assignment
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. school or university work

noun · CEFR B1

a piece of work or a task given to students as part of their studies.

For teachers: a specific task or project allocated to students, typically contributing to their final grade.

- I have to finish my history assignment before the weekend starts.
- The professor distributed the final assignment, which required students to conduct original field research and present their findings in a formal report.

### 2. a work task

noun · CEFR B1

a job or duty that you are given to do by your boss or company.

For teachers: a specific task or duty assigned to an individual or group in a professional context.

- Her first assignment in the new job was to organize the annual conference.
- The journalist accepted a dangerous assignment in a conflict zone, knowing the risks involved in reporting from the front lines.

### 3. the act of giving a task

noun · CEFR B2 · Academic

the act of giving someone a particular job, position, or category.

For teachers: the process of allocating a specific role, responsibility, or classification to a person or object.

- The assignment of roles for the play took several hours of discussion.
- The efficient assignment of resources is critical to the success of any large-scale infrastructure project.

### 4. transfer of rights

noun · CEFR C1 · Formal · Technical

the legal transfer of a right, property, or benefit to another person.

For teachers: the formal transfer of a legal right, interest, or title from one party to another.

- The assignment of the lease must be signed by both the old and new tenants.
- The contract includes a clause prohibiting the assignment of intellectual property rights without prior written consent from the board of directors.

### 5. setting a variable value

noun · CEFR C1 · Technical

the act of giving a specific value to a variable in a computer program.

For teachers: a statement or operation that sets or resets the value stored in a storage location denoted by a variable name.

- The programmer used an assignment to change the player's score to zero.
- The script failed because an assignment was attempted on a constant variable that had already been initialized.

## Examples

- I need to finish my history assignment by tomorrow morning.
- The manager gave her a new assignment to lead the marketing team for the upcoming product launch.
- While the initial assignment seemed straightforward, the students soon realized that the research required a deep dive into primary sources that were not readily available in the local library.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.