assignment

assignment (əˈsaɪnmənt)
—n
1.	something that has been assigned, such as a mission or task
2.	a position or post to which a person is assigned
3.	the act of assigning or state of being assigned
4.	law
	a.  the transfer to another of a right, interest, or title to property, esp personal property: assignment of a lease
	b.  the document effecting such a transfer
	c.  the right, interest, or property transferred
5.	law (formerly) the transfer, esp by an insolvent debtor, of property in trust for the benefit of his creditors
6.	logic a function that associates specific values with each variable in a formal expression
7.	(Austral) history a system (1789--1841) whereby a convict could become the unpaid servant of a freeman

assignment

assignment definition

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.
See also referential transparency, single assignment, zero assignment.
(1996-08-19)