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📝 A task 👔 Appointment 📋 Distribution 📄 Transfer of rights
assignment

assignment

650 1.2
A piece of work given by a teacher or boss
  • noun
  • /əˈsaɪnmənt/
translation icon : tarea
  • The teacher gave us a challenging assignment to complete over the weekend.
  • homework assignments
  • complete assignments
  • writing assignments

I said because that was our assignment for today.

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Examples

  • Tell me how you think students feel when they are given an assignment that requires reading.

    Academic text (2015)

  • I have this really big assignment for work and I got a lot to do.

    Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (2013)

  • I said because that was our assignment for today.

    The Official Steve Harvey

  • If you were to take that assignment on where would you start?

  • And so yesterday your assignment was to notice all day long.

  • So next week's photo assignment will be the new normal.

    Peter McKinnon

  • If you want the assignment, let me know.

    Renegades (2022)

  • So, are you going to help me out with this assignment or what?

    Tina and Lori (2021)

  • However, by the third writing assignment, we still had a few students who were struggling.

    Academic text (2013)

  • How do you give assignments or think about giving assignments to students?

Synonyms

job
vsassignment
∞ 1.0

A task you must do as part of your duties

is a task given by authority, not mainly for pay
charge
vsassignment
  • Formal
∞ 5.1

A person or task someone is responsible for

is used for a specific task requested by a teacher or employer
undertaking
vsassignment
47 4.6

A large difficult task that needs a lot of effort

is a general duty given by authority and often routine

Compounds

writing assignment
6 2.4

A task to write about a topic, usually for a class

duty assignment
  • Jargon
3 3.5

A specific job or task officially given to someone, often in the military

reading assignment
3 2.0

A task a teacher gives to read a specific text

written assignment
2.8

A piece of work where you write about a topic for school

How Difficult

undertaking
47 4.6
project
∞ 2.5
assignment
650 1.2
task
∞ 1.0
exercise
171 2.1

Surface Forms

assignment singular
assignments plural

Morphology

assignment = assign (transparent) = assign + ment

A standard nominalization of the verb 'assign' using the productive suffix '-ment', yielding the task or duty.

Etymology

Assignment comes from an old Latin root signare, which means 'to mark' or 'sign'. Think of a teacher 'marking' a task for a student — an assignment is a task given to someone.