assign

assign — verb

1. to officially tell someone that a particular job, piece of work, or duty is now

1.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

to officially tell someone that a particular job, piece of work, or duty is now their responsibility — for example, a teacher giving homework, or a manager handing out projects at work.

Example

Ms. Lin assigned the chapter on volcanoes to her geography class for homework.

assign + something + to + somebody

The editor assigned Rachel two long interviews and a short review for next month.

assign + somebody + two objects

Common collocations
  • assign homework
  • assign a task
  • assign duties
  • assign a project
  • assign a case
  • be assigned the night shift
Synonyms
  • allocate

    more about distributing limited resources fairly; less about delegating responsibility

  • delegate

    specifically passing your own authority or task downward to a subordinate

  • hand out

    informal; suggests physically distributing tasks to a group

Antonyms
  • withhold

    to deliberately not give someone a task or resource

Grammar Patterns

assign + somebody + something

assign + something + to + somebody

be assigned + to + something

Usage Note

Object is usually a job, role, or task; the person receiving it appears either as a second object or after 'to'. Frequently passive — the receiver often becomes the subject ('she was assigned...').

Common Mistakes

The boss assigned me with three reports.
The boss assigned me three reports.
no preposition before the task; use direct double object or 'assign X to me'.
I was assigned for the new project.
I was assigned to the new project.
use 'to', not 'for', with a project, team, or post.

2. to send a worker, soldier, or official to a particular place or position so they

2.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

to send a worker, soldier, or official to a particular place or position so they can do their job there.

Example

The army assigned Captain Reyes to a small base near the northern border last spring.

assign + person + to + place

Two young diplomats were assigned to the embassy in Tokyo for a three-year posting.

passive: be assigned to + post

Common collocations
  • assign to a post
  • assign to a unit
  • assign to a station
  • be assigned overseas
Synonyms
  • post

    very close in meaning; especially common for soldiers and diplomats

  • deploy

    military; suggests movement of forces, often to active duty

  • station

    emphasises being based in one location for some time

Antonyms
  • recall

    to officially order someone back from a posting

Grammar Patterns

assign + somebody + to + place/post

be assigned + to + place

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1: sense 1 gives someone a TASK or DUTY; this sense sends them to a LOCATION or POSITION. Almost always followed by 'to', and very often passive.

Common Mistakes

He was assigned at the embassy.
He was assigned to the embassy.
use 'to' for the destination post.

3. to choose and set aside a specific time, day, or period during which a particula

3.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

to choose and set aside a specific time, day, or period during which a particular activity will happen.

Example

The coach assigned Tuesday evening for extra practice before the regional finals.

assign + day + for + activity

Our manager assigned thirty minutes to each candidate during the long interview day.

assign + duration + to + each item

Common collocations
  • assign a time
  • assign a day
  • assign a slot
  • assign a period for
Synonyms
  • set aside

    more conversational; suggests reserving time for later use

  • schedule

    puts the event into a calendar; less about choosing the slot itself

  • allot

    formal; emphasises a fixed share of time

Grammar Patterns

assign + a time/date + for + something

assign + a time/date + to + something

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1: here the object is always a time slot or period, never a task or person. Often used in scheduling, study planning, or event organising contexts.

Common Mistakes

I assigned the meeting on Friday.
I assigned Friday for the meeting.
the time is the thing being assigned, so it goes in the object slot.

4. to formally label a thing with a particular score, rating, value, or category —

4.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

to formally label a thing with a particular score, rating, value, or category — typical in grading, classification systems, and measurement.

Example

The judges assigned each gymnastics routine a difficulty score from one to ten.

assign + thing + score

Doctors assign a higher risk level to patients over seventy with diabetes.

assign + value + to + group

Common collocations
  • assign a value
  • assign a score
  • assign a category
  • assign a rating
  • assign a priority
Synonyms
  • attribute

    more about claiming a quality belongs to something; less formal labelling

  • designate

    formal; emphasises official labelling or classification

Grammar Patterns

assign + a value/property + to + something

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 6: this sense puts a label, score, or category onto a thing; sense 6 names the cause of an event or behaviour. Object here is the thing receiving the label, never an event.

Common Mistakes

They assigned the painting as priceless.
They assigned priceless status to the painting.
the property goes in the object slot, not after 'as'.

5. in programming, to place a specific value into a named variable or memory locati

5.verbtransitiveC2
Definition

in programming, to place a specific value into a named variable or memory location so the program can use it later.

Example

The function assigns the user's age to the variable named 'years' before checking it.

assign + value + to + variable

In Python, you assign a string to a variable using a single equals sign.

Common collocations
  • assign a value
  • assign a variable
  • assign a default
  • assign null
Synonyms
  • set

    more conversational among programmers; same operational meaning

  • store

    describes the result; less about the act of binding a name

  • bind

    more technical; common in functional programming contexts

Grammar Patterns

assign + a value + to + a variable

Usage Note

Technical use only — found in programming tutorials, code comments, and software documentation. The 'to' phrase always names where the value goes (variable, memory address, register).

Common Mistakes

Assign x with the value 5.
Assign the value 5 to x.
value first, variable after 'to'.

6. to state, after thinking carefully, what you believe caused something to happen

6.verbtransitiveC2
Definition

to state, after thinking carefully, what you believe caused something to happen or why someone behaved in a certain way.

Example

Historians have assigned the empire's collapse to several decades of poor harvests and heavy taxes.

assign + outcome + to + cause

The report assigned the rise in accidents to driver fatigue rather than mechanical failure.

Common collocations
  • assign blame
  • assign responsibility
  • assign a cause
  • assign a motive
Synonyms
  • attribute

    much more common than 'assign' in this meaning; everyday register

  • ascribe

    formal; almost identical meaning, slightly more literary

  • credit

    used when the cause is positive (success, achievement)

Grammar Patterns

assign + a reason/cause + to + something/somebody

Usage Note

Formal, mostly in academic, journalistic, or legal writing. Distinguish from sense 4: this names the WHY of an event; sense 4 names a property or value of a thing.

Common Mistakes

She assigned the failure on bad luck.
She assigned the failure to bad luck.
use 'to' for the cause, never 'on'.

7. in law, to formally hand over your money, property, or legal rights to another p

7.verbtransitiveC2
Definition

in law, to formally hand over your money, property, or legal rights to another person or company through a signed document.

Example

Mrs. Patel assigned her shop and its lease to her younger brother before moving to Canada.

assign + property + to + person

The novelist assigned the film rights of her book to a small studio in Berlin.

assign + rights + to + company

Common collocations
  • assign property
  • assign rights
  • assign a patent
  • assign a lease
  • assign shares
Synonyms
  • transfer

    broader; everyday register, not necessarily legal

  • convey

    formal legal term, especially for real estate

  • make over

    phrasal verb; informal-to-neutral way to describe legal handover

Antonyms
  • retain

    to legally keep ownership rather than transferring it

Grammar Patterns

assign + property/rights + to + somebody

Usage Note

Strictly legal language — wills, contracts, intellectual-property documents. Distinguish from senses 1 and 2: this transfers OWNERSHIP, not a task or a posting. The receiver is called the 'assignee'.

Common Mistakes

He assigned his house for his daughter.
He assigned his house to his daughter.
the recipient takes 'to', not 'for'.

Word family

  • assignment
    nounB1
  • assignee
    nounC2
  • assigner
    nounC2
  • assignor
    nounC2
  • assignable
    adjectiveC2
  • reassign
    verbC1
  • unassigned
    adjectiveC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All five verbs involve giving something to someone, but they differ in what is being given and why. 'Assign' focuses on linking a specific job, role, or duty to a named person — it carries a sense of authority and responsibility. 'Allocate' is mainly about dividing limited resources fairly (budget, seats, hours), so the focus is the share, not the duty. 'Delegate' specifically means passing your own task or power downward to a subordinate, often because you trust them or are too busy. 'Allot' is more formal and emphasises a fixed, often pre-decided portion. 'Distribute' simply spreads things out among many people, with no special focus on responsibility. Compare: a teacher assigns homework (duty), a school allocates classroom hours (resource), a manager delegates a report to her assistant (transferred power), and a charity distributes blankets to families (spreading goods).

assign ↗allocate ↗delegate ↗allotdistribute ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • assign a task
  • assign a role
  • assign a value
  • assign responsibility
  • assign blame
  • assign rights
  • assign a project

Adverbs

  • randomly assign
  • officially assign
  • permanently assign
  • temporarily assign
  • automatically assign

Phrases

  • be assigned to a team
  • be randomly assigned
  • assign someone the task of

Prepositions

  • assign to
  • assign for
  • be assigned to

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

Borrowed into English in the early 14th century from Old French 'assigner', which came from Latin 'assignare' — built from 'ad-' (to) plus 'signare' (to mark with a sign). The original Latin idea was literally 'to mark something out for someone', which still echoes today: when we assign a task, a value, or a piece of property, we are putting a kind of label on it that ties it to a specific person or category. The legal sense of transferring property is one of the earliest English uses, and the computing sense of binding a value to a variable is a modern extension of the same 'mark this for that' core idea.