assignment

Noun

Synonyms: duty assignment assigning grant appointment designation naming

WordNet 3.0

Noun (6)

a duty that you are assigned to perform (especially in the armed forces)“hazardous duty”Synonyms: duty assignment
the instrument by which a claim or right or interest or property is transferred from one person to another
the act of distributing something to designated places or persons“the first task is the assignment of an address to each datum”Synonyms: assigning
(law) a transfer of property by deed of conveyanceSynonyms: grant
an undertaking that you have been assigned to do (as by an instructor)
the act of putting a person into a non-elective position“the appointment had to be approved by the whole committee”Synonyms: appointment designation naming

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

Assignment \As*sign"ment\, n. [LL. assignamentum: cf. OF. assenement.]

1.An allotting or an appointment to a particular person or use; or for a particular time, as of a cause or causes in court. [1913 Webster]

2.(Law) (a) A transfer of title or interest by writing, as of lease, bond, note, or bill of exchange; a transfer of the whole of some particular estate or interest in lands. (b) The writing by which an interest is transferred. (c) The transfer of the property of a bankrupt to certain persons called assignees, in whom it is vested for the benefit of creditors. [1913 Webster]

Assignment of dower, the setting out by metes and bounds of the widow's thirds or portion in the deceased husband's estate, and allotting it to her. [1913 Webster]

Note: Assignment is also used in law as convertible with specification; assignment of error in proceedings for review being specification of error; and assignment of perjury or fraud in indictment being specifications of perjury or fraud. [1913 Webster]

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

assignment

<programming> Storing the value of an expression in a variable. This is commonly written in the form "v = e". In Algol the assignment operator was ":=" (pronounced "becomes") to avoid mathematicians qualms about writing statements like x = x+1.

Assignment is not allowed in functional languages, where an identifier always has the same value.

(1996-08-19)