assignment define english

Definition of 'assignment'

Video: pronunciation of assignment

assignment in British English

Assignment in american english, examples of 'assignment' in a sentence assignment, cobuild collocations assignment, trends of assignment.

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• assigned randomly
• assigned risk
• assimilability
• assimilable
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• seat assignment
• tough assignment
• writing assignment
• challenging assignment
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Synonyms of assignment

• as in lesson
• as in appointment
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Thesaurus Definition of assignment

Synonyms & Similar Words

• responsibility
• undertaking
• requirement
• designation
• appointment
• authorization
• installment
• installation
• destination
• emplacement
• investiture
• singling (out)

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• dethronement

Synonym Chooser

How does the noun assignment contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of assignment are chore , duty , job , stint , and task . While all these words mean "a piece of work to be done," assignment implies a definite limited task assigned by one in authority.

When is it sensible to use chore instead of assignment ?

While the synonyms chore and assignment are close in meaning, chore implies a minor routine activity necessary for maintaining a household or farm.

When is duty a more appropriate choice than assignment ?

Although the words duty and assignment have much in common, duty implies an obligation to perform or responsibility for performance.

When might job be a better fit than assignment ?

The synonyms job and assignment are sometimes interchangeable, but job applies to a piece of work voluntarily performed; it may sometimes suggest difficulty or importance.

When could stint be used to replace assignment ?

In some situations, the words stint and assignment are roughly equivalent. However, stint implies a carefully allotted or measured quantity of assigned work or service.

When can task be used instead of assignment ?

The meanings of task and assignment largely overlap; however, task implies work imposed by a person in authority or an employer or by circumstance.

Thesaurus Entries Near assignment

assignments

Cite this Entry

“Assignment.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/assignment. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on assignment

Nglish: Translation of assignment for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of assignment for Arabic Speakers

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Meaning of assign in English

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assign verb [T] ( CHOOSE )

• Every available officer will be assigned to the investigation .
• The textbooks were assigned by the course director .
• Part of the group were assigned to clear land mines .
• Each trainee is assigned a mentor who will help them learn more about the job .
• We were assigned an interpreter for the duration of our stay .
• accommodate
• accommodate someone with something
• administration
• arm someone with something
• hand something back
• hand something down
• hand something in
• hand something out
• re-equipment
• reassignment

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

assign verb [T] ( SEND )

• She was assigned to the Paris office .
• All the team were assigned to Poland.
• advertisement
• employment agency
• equality, diversity and inclusion
• reinstatement
• relocation expenses
• testimonial

assign verb [T] ( COMPUTING )

• 3-D printing
• adaptive learning
• additive manufacturing
• hexadecimal
• hill climbing
• telerobotics
• word processing

assign verb [T] ( GIVE LEGALLY )

Phrasal verb, assign | american dictionary, assign | business english, examples of assign, translations of assign.

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Word of the Day

be chasing your tail

to be busy doing a lot of things but achieving very little

Binding, nailing, and gluing: talking about fastening things together

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Understanding Assignments

What this handout is about.

The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.

Basic beginnings

Regardless of the assignment, department, or instructor, adopting these two habits will serve you well :

• Read the assignment carefully as soon as you receive it. Do not put this task off—reading the assignment at the beginning will save you time, stress, and problems later. An assignment can look pretty straightforward at first, particularly if the instructor has provided lots of information. That does not mean it will not take time and effort to complete; you may even have to learn a new skill to complete the assignment.
• Ask the instructor about anything you do not understand. Do not hesitate to approach your instructor. Instructors would prefer to set you straight before you hand the paper in. That’s also when you will find their feedback most useful.

Assignment formats

Many assignments follow a basic format. Assignments often begin with an overview of the topic, include a central verb or verbs that describe the task, and offer some additional suggestions, questions, or prompts to get you started.

An Overview of Some Kind

The instructor might set the stage with some general discussion of the subject of the assignment, introduce the topic, or remind you of something pertinent that you have discussed in class. For example:

“Throughout history, gerbils have played a key role in politics,” or “In the last few weeks of class, we have focused on the evening wear of the housefly …”

The Task of the Assignment

Pay attention; this part tells you what to do when you write the paper. Look for the key verb or verbs in the sentence. Words like analyze, summarize, or compare direct you to think about your topic in a certain way. Also pay attention to words such as how, what, when, where, and why; these words guide your attention toward specific information. (See the section in this handout titled “Key Terms” for more information.)

“Analyze the effect that gerbils had on the Russian Revolution”, or “Suggest an interpretation of housefly undergarments that differs from Darwin’s.”

Additional Material to Think about

Here you will find some questions to use as springboards as you begin to think about the topic. Instructors usually include these questions as suggestions rather than requirements. Do not feel compelled to answer every question unless the instructor asks you to do so. Pay attention to the order of the questions. Sometimes they suggest the thinking process your instructor imagines you will need to follow to begin thinking about the topic.

“You may wish to consider the differing views held by Communist gerbils vs. Monarchist gerbils, or Can there be such a thing as ‘the housefly garment industry’ or is it just a home-based craft?”

These are the instructor’s comments about writing expectations:

“Be concise”, “Write effectively”, or “Argue furiously.”

Technical Details

These instructions usually indicate format rules or guidelines.

“Your paper must be typed in Palatino font on gray paper and must not exceed 600 pages. It is due on the anniversary of Mao Tse-tung’s death.”

The assignment’s parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do.

Interpreting the assignment

Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:

Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task?

Who is your audience.

• What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas?

What kind of writing style is acceptable?

• What are the absolute rules of the paper?

Try to look at the question from the point of view of the instructor. Recognize that your instructor has a reason for giving you this assignment and for giving it to you at a particular point in the semester. In every assignment, the instructor has a challenge for you. This challenge could be anything from demonstrating an ability to think clearly to demonstrating an ability to use the library. See the assignment not as a vague suggestion of what to do but as an opportunity to show that you can handle the course material as directed. Paper assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic. Keep reminding yourself of that. Be careful to avoid the other extreme as well: do not read more into the assignment than what is there.

Of course, your instructor has given you an assignment so that he or she will be able to assess your understanding of the course material and give you an appropriate grade. But there is more to it than that. Your instructor has tried to design a learning experience of some kind. Your instructor wants you to think about something in a particular way for a particular reason. If you read the course description at the beginning of your syllabus, review the assigned readings, and consider the assignment itself, you may begin to see the plan, purpose, or approach to the subject matter that your instructor has created for you. If you still aren’t sure of the assignment’s goals, try asking the instructor. For help with this, see our handout on getting feedback .

Given your instructor’s efforts, it helps to answer the question: What is my purpose in completing this assignment? Is it to gather research from a variety of outside sources and present a coherent picture? Is it to take material I have been learning in class and apply it to a new situation? Is it to prove a point one way or another? Key words from the assignment can help you figure this out. Look for key terms in the form of active verbs that tell you what to do.

Key Terms: Finding Those Active Verbs

Here are some common key words and definitions to help you think about assignment terms:

Information words Ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why.

• define —give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning
• describe —provide details about the subject by answering question words (such as who, what, when, where, how, and why); you might also give details related to the five senses (what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell)
• explain —give reasons why or examples of how something happened
• illustrate —give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject
• summarize —briefly list the important ideas you learned about the subject
• trace —outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form
• research —gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you have found

Relation words Ask you to demonstrate how things are connected.

• compare —show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different)
• contrast —show how two or more things are dissimilar
• apply—use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation
• cause —show how one event or series of events made something else happen
• relate —show or describe the connections between things

Interpretation words Ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Do not see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation.

• assess —summarize your opinion of the subject and measure it against something
• prove, justify —give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth
• evaluate, respond —state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons
• support —give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe)
• synthesize —put two or more things together that have not been put together in class or in your readings before; do not just summarize one and then the other and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together that runs all the way through the paper
• analyze —determine how individual parts create or relate to the whole, figure out how something works, what it might mean, or why it is important
• argue —take a side and defend it with evidence against the other side

More Clues to Your Purpose As you read the assignment, think about what the teacher does in class:

• What kinds of textbooks or coursepack did your instructor choose for the course—ones that provide background information, explain theories or perspectives, or argue a point of view?
• In lecture, does your instructor ask your opinion, try to prove her point of view, or use keywords that show up again in the assignment?
• What kinds of assignments are typical in this discipline? Social science classes often expect more research. Humanities classes thrive on interpretation and analysis.
• How do the assignments, readings, and lectures work together in the course? Instructors spend time designing courses, sometimes even arguing with their peers about the most effective course materials. Figuring out the overall design to the course will help you understand what each assignment is meant to achieve.

Now, what about your reader? Most undergraduates think of their audience as the instructor. True, your instructor is a good person to keep in mind as you write. But for the purposes of a good paper, think of your audience as someone like your roommate: smart enough to understand a clear, logical argument, but not someone who already knows exactly what is going on in your particular paper. Remember, even if the instructor knows everything there is to know about your paper topic, he or she still has to read your paper and assess your understanding. In other words, teach the material to your reader.

Aiming a paper at your audience happens in two ways: you make decisions about the tone and the level of information you want to convey.

• Tone means the “voice” of your paper. Should you be chatty, formal, or objective? Usually you will find some happy medium—you do not want to alienate your reader by sounding condescending or superior, but you do not want to, um, like, totally wig on the man, you know? Eschew ostentatious erudition: some students think the way to sound academic is to use big words. Be careful—you can sound ridiculous, especially if you use the wrong big words.
• The level of information you use depends on who you think your audience is. If you imagine your audience as your instructor and she already knows everything you have to say, you may find yourself leaving out key information that can cause your argument to be unconvincing and illogical. But you do not have to explain every single word or issue. If you are telling your roommate what happened on your favorite science fiction TV show last night, you do not say, “First a dark-haired white man of average height, wearing a suit and carrying a flashlight, walked into the room. Then a purple alien with fifteen arms and at least three eyes turned around. Then the man smiled slightly. In the background, you could hear a clock ticking. The room was fairly dark and had at least two windows that I saw.” You also do not say, “This guy found some aliens. The end.” Find some balance of useful details that support your main point.

You’ll find a much more detailed discussion of these concepts in our handout on audience .

The Grim Truth

With a few exceptions (including some lab and ethnography reports), you are probably being asked to make an argument. You must convince your audience. It is easy to forget this aim when you are researching and writing; as you become involved in your subject matter, you may become enmeshed in the details and focus on learning or simply telling the information you have found. You need to do more than just repeat what you have read. Your writing should have a point, and you should be able to say it in a sentence. Sometimes instructors call this sentence a “thesis” or a “claim.”

So, if your instructor tells you to write about some aspect of oral hygiene, you do not want to just list: “First, you brush your teeth with a soft brush and some peanut butter. Then, you floss with unwaxed, bologna-flavored string. Finally, gargle with bourbon.” Instead, you could say, “Of all the oral cleaning methods, sandblasting removes the most plaque. Therefore it should be recommended by the American Dental Association.” Or, “From an aesthetic perspective, moldy teeth can be quite charming. However, their joys are short-lived.”

Convincing the reader of your argument is the goal of academic writing. It doesn’t have to say “argument” anywhere in the assignment for you to need one. Look at the assignment and think about what kind of argument you could make about it instead of just seeing it as a checklist of information you have to present. For help with understanding the role of argument in academic writing, see our handout on argument .

What kind of evidence do you need?

There are many kinds of evidence, and what type of evidence will work for your assignment can depend on several factors–the discipline, the parameters of the assignment, and your instructor’s preference. Should you use statistics? Historical examples? Do you need to conduct your own experiment? Can you rely on personal experience? See our handout on evidence for suggestions on how to use evidence appropriately.

Make sure you are clear about this part of the assignment, because your use of evidence will be crucial in writing a successful paper. You are not just learning how to argue; you are learning how to argue with specific types of materials and ideas. Ask your instructor what counts as acceptable evidence. You can also ask a librarian for help. No matter what kind of evidence you use, be sure to cite it correctly—see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial .

You cannot always tell from the assignment just what sort of writing style your instructor expects. The instructor may be really laid back in class but still expect you to sound formal in writing. Or the instructor may be fairly formal in class and ask you to write a reflection paper where you need to use “I” and speak from your own experience.

Try to avoid false associations of a particular field with a style (“art historians like wacky creativity,” or “political scientists are boring and just give facts”) and look instead to the types of readings you have been given in class. No one expects you to write like Plato—just use the readings as a guide for what is standard or preferable to your instructor. When in doubt, ask your instructor about the level of formality she or he expects.

No matter what field you are writing for or what facts you are including, if you do not write so that your reader can understand your main idea, you have wasted your time. So make clarity your main goal. For specific help with style, see our handout on style .

Technical details about the assignment

The technical information you are given in an assignment always seems like the easy part. This section can actually give you lots of little hints about approaching the task. Find out if elements such as page length and citation format (see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial ) are negotiable. Some professors do not have strong preferences as long as you are consistent and fully answer the assignment. Some professors are very specific and will deduct big points for deviations.

Usually, the page length tells you something important: The instructor thinks the size of the paper is appropriate to the assignment’s parameters. In plain English, your instructor is telling you how many pages it should take for you to answer the question as fully as you are expected to. So if an assignment is two pages long, you cannot pad your paper with examples or reword your main idea several times. Hit your one point early, defend it with the clearest example, and finish quickly. If an assignment is ten pages long, you can be more complex in your main points and examples—and if you can only produce five pages for that assignment, you need to see someone for help—as soon as possible.

Tricks that don’t work

Your instructors are not fooled when you:

• spend more time on the cover page than the essay —graphics, cool binders, and cute titles are no replacement for a well-written paper.
• use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to pad the page length —these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye. Most instructors use the same word processor you do. They know what’s possible. Such tactics are especially damning when the instructor has a stack of 60 papers to grade and yours is the only one that low-flying airplane pilots could read.
• use a paper from another class that covered “sort of similar” material . Again, the instructor has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other paper may not cover this material, and turning in the same paper for more than one course may constitute an Honor Code violation . Ask the instructor—it can’t hurt.
• get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question . Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your instructor. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of papers, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.

Critical reading of assignments leads to skills in other types of reading and writing. If you get good at figuring out what the real goals of assignments are, you are going to be better at understanding the goals of all of your classes and fields of study.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Walter W. Skeat and the Oxford English Dictionary

Origin Uncertain: Unraveling the Mysteries of Etymology 

Anatoly Liberman's column on word origins,  The Oxford Etymologist , appears on the OUPblog each Wednesday. Subscribe to Anatoly Liberman’s weekly etymology articles via  email  or  RSS .

• By Anatoly Liberman
• April 17 th 2024

For many years, I have been trying to talk an old friend of mine into writing a popular book on Skeat. A book about such a colorful individual, I kept repeating, would sell like hotcakes. But he never wrote it. Neither will I (much to my regret), but there is no reason why I should not devote another short essay to Skeat. In 2016, Oxford University Press published Peter Gilliver’s book The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary , a work of incredible erudition. Skeat is mentioned in it many times, and I decided to glean those mentions, to highlight Skeat’s role in the production of the epoch-making work.

Twenty-six years separated the day on which the idea of the dictionary was made public and the appearance of the first fascicle. Countless people contributed to the production of the OED , but the public, if it knows anything about the history of this project, has heard only the name of James A. H. Murray , its first and greatest editor. This is perhaps as it should be, but in the wings we find quite a few actors waiting for broader recognition. One of them is Walter W. Skeat , a man of incredible erudition and inexhaustible energy. I have lauded him more than once (see, for example, the post for November 17, 2010 , reprinted in my book Origin Uncertain … .). However, today I’ll use only the material mentioned in or suggested by Peter Gilliver.

Skeat was not only the greatest English etymologist of his time (in a way, I think, of all times, despite the progress made by this branch of linguistics since 1912, the year he died). In 1873, he also founded the English Dialect Society and remained active in it as secretary and later director until 1896 (in 1897, after fulfilling its function, the society was dissolved). He edited the numerous book-length glossaries published by the society; attended its meetings wherever they were held, and without him Joseph Wright ’s work The English Dialect Dictionary (1898-1905), still a source of inspiration to students of English, would probably not have been completed.

Among very many other things (!), he was a founding member of The Early English Text Society , and in 1865, he became a member of its committee. Neither post was “ceremonial,” for it presupposed a lot of work. Last but not least, Skeat was a generous man, a rare quality in scholars. For instance, he contributed a large sum of money to the Dialect Society at its inception, and much earlier, in 1885, he loaned Murray £1,660 for the purchase of a house in Oxford, the location of the future famous Scriptorium . Curiously, to this day, it is often the philanthropists who subsidize historical linguistics.

In the early eighteen-seventies, some influential people suggested that Skeat should become the main figure in the production of what became the OED . Fortunately, he concentrated on editing medieval texts and writing his etymological dictionary. He would not have become a second Murray, but by way of compensation, no one else would have done so much for the study of word origins and early English literature. Amazingly, Murray, a wonder of erudition, had little formal education and no university degree, while the Reverend Skeat’s background was in the classics. As individuals, Skeat and Murray represented different psychological types. Skeat was impatient and ready to bring out a book, not yet quite perfect, in the hope of a revised version. He would have been satisfied with a much smaller OED , while Murray made no concessions to haste (his invariable goal was absolute perfection, a wagon hitched to a star) and advised Skeat to wait for the completion of the OED before publishing his etymological dictionary. Fortunately, his suggestion fell on deaf ears, but Skeat’s readiness to agree that the text of the OED might be shortened infuriated Murray. (The episode was the result of a misunderstanding, and Skeat apologized.)

At that time, all thick dictionaries appeared in fascicles, which presupposed a good deal of competition among the lexicographers, the more so as a relatively small circle of publishers was involved. The people whom we know only from the names on the covers of their works were often not only colleagues and even friends but also rivals. At a certain moment, Skeat concluded that the Clarendon Press had declined to take on the OED and turned to the Press with an offer of his own etymological dictionary. As it happened, the two projects ran concurrently and did not get into each other’s way. Skeat’s work appeared in 1882, two years before the first fascicle of the OED came out. Murray once commented on Skeat’s dependence on the research at the OED , but Skeat responded rather testily that the OED had also had access to his findings. Yet Skeat remained Murray’s trusted friend and often maneuvered among various projects, to prevent other publishers from interfering with the OED . Though also hot-tempered, he was more diplomatic than Murray, and the relations between the two men remained friendly and even warm for years. To James Murray, Skeat’s death in 1912 was a heavy blow. He survived Skeat by three years. (Skeat: 1835-1912, Murray: 1837-1915.)

Throughout his life, Skeat supported the OED by his reviews (today it seems incredible that once not everybody praised Murray’s work) and kept chastising his countrymen for their ignorance and stupidity when it came to philology. He never stopped complaining that people used to offer silly hypotheses of word origins, instead of consulting the greatest authority there was. He also tried to encourage Murray, who often felt exhausted and dispirited. This is the letter he wrote to Murray, when he was working on cu -words: “I could find enough talk to cumber you. You could come by a curvilinear railway. Bring a cudgel to walk with. We will give you culinary dishes. Your holiday will culminate in sufficient rest; we can cultivate new ideas, & cull new flowers of speech. We have cutlets in the cupboards , & currants , & curry , & custards , & (naturally) cups . […] Write & say you’ll CUM!” Nor did Skeat stay away from the least interesting part of the work connected with the OED and often read the proofs of the pages before they went into print.

Gilliver states that Skeat’s support for the Dictionary and its editors in so many ways places him alongside Furnivall and Henry Hucks Gibbs. Gibbs was “a wealthy merchant banker (and director of the bank of England) who would go on to become one of the Dictionary’s greatest supporters… He had been reading for the Dictionary at least since July 1860.” And the somewhat erratic Frederick James Furnivall (1825-1910) earned fame as a central figure in the philology of his day, even though today only specialists remember him.

A picture of Furnivall can be seen on p. 12. Gibbs appears sitting in a comfortable armchair on p. 43, and on p. 67, an entry for rebeck “a rude kind of fiddle” (among other senses), subedited by Skeat, is photographed. Quite a few more bagatelles of this type can be produced by an attentive reader of Peter Gilliver’s monumental book, but for the moment, I’ll stay with Skeat.

Header: James Murray photographed in the Scriptorium on 10 July 1915 with his assistants: (back row) Arthur Maling, Frederick Sweatman, F. A. Yockney, (seated) Elsie Murray, Rosfrith Murray. Reproduced by permission of the Secretary to the Delegates of Oxford University Press.

Anatoly Liberman  is the author of  Word Origins And How We Know Them ,   An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction , and  Take My Word For It: A Dictionary of English Idioms .

Anatoly's latest book,  Origin Uncertain: Unraveling the Mysteries of Etymology  (OUP, 2024), is available to pre-order. 

His column on word origins,  The Oxford Etymologist , appears on the OUPblog each Wednesday. Send your etymology question to him care of  [email protected] ; he’ll do his best to avoid responding with “origin unknown.”

Subscribe to Anatoly Liberman’s weekly etymology articles via  email  or  RSS .

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Outrage as high school student is suspended just for using the term ‘illegal alien’ in class discussion.

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A 16-year-old North Carolina high school student says he was suspended just for saying “illegal alien” while discussing word meaning in English class — possibly ruining his chances of landing a college sports scholarship.

Christian McGhee, a student at Central Davidson High School in Lexington, received a three-day suspension last week after he used the term in English class, the Carolina Journal reported .

His mother, Leah McGhee, said his teacher had given an assignment that used the word “alien,” and Christian asked: “Like space aliens or illegal aliens without green cards?”

Another student reportedly took offense and threatened to fight Christian, so the teacher took the matter to the assistant principal, according to the Carolina Journal.

Eventually, his words were determined to be offensive and disrespectful to Hispanic classmates, so he was suspended.

 “I didn’t make a statement directed towards anyone — I asked a question,” Christian told the outlet.

“I wasn’t speaking of Hispanics because everyone from other countries needs green cards, and the term ‘illegal alien’ is an actual term that I hear on the news and can find in the dictionary,” he added.

The suspension may also affect the student-athlete’s prospects of securing a college sports scholarship, the Journal noted.

“Because of his question, our son was disciplined and given THREE days OUT of school suspension for ‘racism,’” Leah wrote in an email describing the incident.

“He is devastated and concerned that the racism label on his school record will harm his future goal of receiving a track scholarship. We are concerned that he will fall behind in his classes due to being absent for three consecutive days,” she added in the message, which was shared with the outlet.

The irate mom said the assistant principal has refused to remove the suspension from the boy’s record, so the family has hired an attorney.

On Tuesday, Leah appeared on “The Pete Kaliner Show,” which airs on radio station WBT, and said her family had once lived in England, and Christian mentioned how Britons also need green cards to live in the US, Newsweek reported . She said she and her husband told the assistant principal that “illegal alien” is a term their son can look up in a dictionary. “It is a term used as federal code, and it is a term that is heard frequently on many news broadcasts,” Leah said on the show. “I feel that if this was handled properly in the classroom, it could have easily been used as a teachable moment for everyone.”

Republican state Sen. Steve Jarvis said he has contacted the school district superintendent about the matter — but he has not yet taken a stance on what should be done.

“I do not see that that would be an offensive statement, just in getting clarification,” Jarvis told the Journal. “But there again, I don’t know. I don’t know the situation of this particular incident.”

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The popular X account Libs of TikTok also weighed in by saying Christian’s record could be “damaged” by the brouhaha over political correctness.

“Please support this based student by helping to raise awareness to his story!” the conservative account wrote in the post, which has received more than 4 million views.

Among those to respond was X owner Elon Musk, who wrote: “This is absurd.”

Conservative personality Ian Miles Chong called it “insane.”

“How does one get suspended for using the term illegal alien?” he asked.

Libs of TikTok added: “Hopefully North Carolina officials can step in and ensure his record isn’t tarnished in any way because he’s trying to secure an athletic scholarship for college.

“He should not be persecuted for using the correct term just because the left is trying to change our entire language,” the account added.

A staffer at Central Davidson High School told Newsweek that they could not comment about a specific student due to federal protections.

“Please know that Davidson County Schools administrators take all discipline incidents seriously and investigate each one thoroughly,” the rep told the mag. “Any violation of the code of conduct is handled appropriately by administrators.”

The student handbook says that “schools may place restrictions on a student’s right to free speech when the speech is obscene, abusive, promoting illegal drug use, or is reasonably expected to cause a substantial disruption to the school day,” the Carolina Journal reported.

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Definition of assign verb from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• assign something (to somebody) The teacher assigned a different task to each of the children.
• The two large classrooms have been assigned to us.
• assign somebody something We have been assigned the two large classrooms.
• The teacher assigned each of the children a different task.

Questions about grammar and vocabulary?

Find the answers with Practical English Usage online, your indispensable guide to problems in English.

• assign somebody (to something/as something) They've assigned their best man to the job.
• Two senior officers have been assigned to the case.
• assign somebody to do something British forces have been assigned to help with peacekeeping.
• be assigned to somebody/something I was assigned to B platoon.
• He was assigned to the Royal Canadian Navy in 1975.
• assign something to something Assign a different colour to each different type of information.
• assign something sth The painting cannot be assigned an exact date.
• The agreement assigns copyright to the publisher.
• She has assigned the lease to her daughter.

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• Implementing Receivables Credit to Cash

Revenue Contingency Assignment Rules

Use the Revenue Contingency Assignment Rules pages to define rules for automatically assigning revenue contingencies to transactions.

A revenue contingency assignment rule consists of:

Rule name and optional description.

Revenue contingency to assign to transactions.

One or more parameters that contain the conditions under which the contingency is assigned.

The rule parameters available for rule definition include:

Revenue Scheduling Rule

Transaction Source

Bill-to Customer

Bill-to Site

Customer Profile Class

Business Unit

Ship-to Customer

Ship-to Site

Transaction Type

You can define multiple rules with different matching criteria that return the same contingency, and you can also define multiple rules with the same matching criteria that return multiple contingencies.

After you create an assignment rule, you can test the rule to ensure that all expressions are accurate and the rule functions as expected.

Revenue contingency assignment rules let you automate the assignment of contingencies to transactions in a way that reflects the practical needs of your enterprise. You typically use these rules to support the contingency assignment requirements that aren't supported by your revenue policy setup.

For example, you may want to require Customer ABC to manually accept an item before recognizing revenue on the related transactions. To make this a mandatory process:

Create a new revenue contingency assignment rule.

Select the revenue contingency Explicit Acceptance for this rule.

Select Bill-to Customer as the rule parameter.

Enter the related customer condition.

With this defaulting rule in place, Receivables assigns the Explicit Acceptance contingency to all transaction lines for Customer ABC, and defers revenue until the customer acknowledges acceptance of each line item.

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The unexpected ways in which Japanese words 'make it' into English

Have you scrolled to the end of the emoji keyboard, looking for those peskily faraway hearts, and accidentally sent a mysterious “NG”? Asked a friend in Japan if they want to go out for hibachi and been met with a blank stare? As a language shifts and evolves, it’s wont to take absurd and arbitrary twists and turns. (Consider that inflammable means flammable, or that peruse means both to examine in close detail and browse superficially.) But when two languages get together, things can get extra weird.

“Hibachi” got an update as well. Though it was first added in 1933 as a charcoal brazier for warming hands or boiling water for tea, North Americans have been using it for just as long to mean something else. In English, the word can refer to a small portable barbecue, as well as to restaurants where someone cooks on a hot plate surrounded by diners (what’s called “ teppanyaki ” in Japan), as popularized by New York’s Benihana, which features a goofy chef who does tricks, including tossing food directly into people’s mouths.

(Japanese uses “ teppan ” for the bigger, hotter plate seen in restaurants, while the kind people use at home that often runs on induction is called, naturally, “ hotto purēto .”)

“Language has quirks like that,” says Danica Salazar, lexicographer and executive editor for world Englishes at the OED. “Things happen to words as they travel from one language to another, and that's perfectly normal.”

She points to the case of reborrowings, also called boomerang words, which are words that pass from one language to the other, and then back again. The Japanese “anime” is short for “ animēshon ,” which, of course, came from the English for “animation,” but has since re-entered English with a more specific meaning. The same goes for “cosplay,” or “ kosupure ,” originally a combination of “costume” and “play” from English, which was added to the OED in 2008.

“NG,” which stands for “no good,” is used liberally in Japan but is, to an American English speaker, “not a thing” as they might say. But emoji sets, having originated in Japan, still retain a number of Japanese-specific concepts. So “NG” has its own emoji, right above “OK” on the iOS keyboard.

These examples are from the interplay of two languages — what about three? “ Sukinshippu ,” a word made in Japan based on “skin” and “relationship” to mean physical affection (as in, between a parent and child or friends) was later borrowed into Korean (“ seukinsip ”). It now also includes the meaning of PDA, and can be used by fans when gossiping about celebrities. With the rise of K-pop, “skinship” has now made it into English usage.

“The centers of English have mostly been considered to be the U.K. and later on the U.S., and any shifts in vocabulary have to start from there and then spread out to the rest of the English-speaking world,” says Salazar. But now trends starting in Asian countries spread across the continent first, before the West catches on, she says. “Now even countries like Japan and South Korea can have a certain degree of influence in English.”

How much one language affects another isn’t necessarily a reflection of a country’s global hard or soft power; rather it reflects the exposure of its speakers to that of the other. That’s why one of the earliest uses of Japanese words in English only comes in 1577, from a collection of travel writings in the “West and East Indies,” and why Japanese contributions are relatively few and recent, with 552 loanwords in English. Compare that with the 25,000 borrowings from French, most of which came into English following the Norman Conquest of 1066.

The OED uses a combination of a digital database and human scholars to track the frequency of words and phrases to be considered for inclusion. The dictionary is currently undergoing revision, says Salazar, pointing to the entry for “sakura.” The existing definition is “flowering cherry tree,” which isn’t different from the word “cherry blossom” in English. Still, says Salazar, “ sakura ” evokes something different than just generic blossoms. Like the French borrowing “haute couture,” for which English has its own “high fashion,” the phrase just gives an extra sense of je ne sais quoi .

Coming to a conversation near you

Here is a list of the 23 words that made it into the Oxford English Dictionary last month.

• donburi, n.
• hibachi, n.
• karaage, n.
• katsu curry, n.
• kintsugi, n.
• kirigami, n.
• mangaka, n.
• okonomiyaki, n.
• omotenashi, n.
• onigiri, n.
• santoku, n.
• shibori, n.
• takoyaki, n.
• tokusatsu, n.
• tonkatsu, n.
• tonkatsu sauce, n.
• tonkotsu, n./1
• tonkotsu, n./2
• washi tape, n.
• yakiniku, n.

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'The Black Dog' in Taylor Swift song is a real bar in London

At 2 a.m. Friday, Taylor Swift dropped 15 extra songs in what she called a "surprise double album."

"The Black Dog" stands out from the pack on "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology."

A "black dog" is a term referring to feelings of depression, great sadness and lack of energy, according to the Cambridge Dictionary. In English literature and folklore, a black dog was a demonic hellhound that served as an omen of death.

In this instance, Swift refers to a bar, the "Black Dog" that she notices her ex going to one night. He has forgotten to stop sharing his location. Something so trivial invokes incredible sadness and thoughts of comparison, maybe jealousy. Swift writes an invented narrative that the ex is meeting a new girl who won't understand a Starting Line song, because she's too young to know about the pop-punk band from the early 2000s. Part of the lyrics are, "I move through the world with a heart broken. My longings stay unspoken, and I may never open up the way I did for you."

The Black Dog is a London pub located at: 112 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5ER, United Kingdom .

The tender whimper on the last note captures perfectly the pangs of saying goodbye to a relationship.

'Tortured Poets' release live updates What to know as Taylor Swift's new album debuts

'The Tortured Poets Department'

If you didn't get the memo from the department's Chairman, "Tortured Poets" is Swift's 11th era album with 16 tracks and four bonus songs (four versions of the album each have a different bonus track).

Swift announced the project at the Grammys, when she won her 13th career Grammy for pop album of the year. Post Malone and Florence and The Machine  are two contributors on the pop album.

Its track titles are brutal. Fans speculated the album was about Swift’s six-year relationship with English actor Joe Alwyn and their breakup. Both stars kept the relationship out of the public eye. The back of the first version of the album reads, “I love you, it’s ruining me,” serving as a dagger-to-the-chest harbinger.

The album was released during Swift's two-month break from her massively popular and economically fruitful Eras Tour . "Tortured Poets" serves as an exclamation point to the behemoth success the billionaire has seen over the past year since the three-plus-hour show launched in Glendale, Arizona. Swift will return to the stage in Paris, France, on May 9. Fans anticipate that her newest era will be added to the show.

Don't miss any Taylor Swift news; sign up for the  free, weekly newsletter "This Swift Beat."

Follow Taylor Swift reporter Bryan West on  Instagram ,  TikTok  and  X as @BryanWestTV .

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Middle East conflict

April 17, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

By Kathleen Magramo, Antoinette Radford and Tori B. Powell, CNN

Our live coverage of Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza has moved  here .

Death toll from strike on central Gaza's Al-Maghazi refugee camp rises to 14, hospital officials say

From CNN's Jennifer Hauser

The death toll from an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Al-Maghazi refugee camp has risen to 14, including 8 children, according to Al-Aqsa hospital officials.

The airstrike hit the refugee camp in central Gaza on Tuesday, with initial reports saying 13 people — including seven children — were among those killed.

The Israeli military said the incident is under review.

Footage of the strike: Graphic video, obtained exclusively by CNN from eyewitness Nihad Owdetallah, showed several casualties scattered on the floor, including children, with blood streaming around the area.

In the video, dozens of people appear to be running around in panic, screaming and trying to count and carry the dead bodies. A foosball table covered in dust is seen among the dead bodies.

Footage shot for CNN from inside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital showed a continuous flow of casualties and injured people being ushered in, as the emergency room is crowded with patients, including several wounded children, crying out on the floor. Family members were seen crowding over their loved one’s dead bodies, kissing them, holding onto them and sobbing.

Qatar will conduct a "comprehensive evaluation" of its mediation role in sensitive negotiations

From CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali, Raja Razek and Larry Register in Atlanta

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani expressed concerns Wednesday over the current state of international mediation efforts led by Qatar to help reach an agreement on the release of hostages and a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Al Thani, who is also Qatar's foreign minister, criticized the misuse of Qatar's efforts for “narrow political” gains by some involved, undermining the broader goal of peace and humanitarian relief, “which required the State of Qatar to conduct a comprehensive evaluation.”

He emphasized the sensitivity of the ongoing talks and highlighted the challenges faced in bridging gaps between conflicting parties. He also pointed out the inconsistency between private assurances and public statements by involved parties, describing such actions as counterproductive. 

While the Qatari leaders did not point anyone out by name, the comments followed a statement by US Rep. Steny Hoyer on Monday that said if Qatar fails to apply pressure on Hamas to reach an agreement on a deal to release hostages and establish a temporary ceasefire, “the United States must reevaluate its relationship with Qatar.”

On Tuesday Qatar’s Embassy to the US in Washington issued a statement saying it was surprised by Hoyer’s remarks, adding that while the country shares the congressman's frustrations, it does not control Israel or Hamas.

It's past midnight in Gaza. Here's what you should know

From CNN staff

More than 13,800 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on October 7, according to United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Catherine Russell.

Additionally, "one child is injured or dies every 10 minutes" in Gaza, according to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The statement added that more than 10,000 women have been killed in Gaza since the war began, 6,000 of whom left 19,000 orphaned children behind.

CNN cannot independently verify death numbers due to lack of access to the strip.

Here are other headlines you should know:

• Fatal IDF operation: The Israeli military claims to have killed and arrested several militants during an operation in the civilian area of Beit Hanoun in the northeastern Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces said it had raided a building complex that included two schools after receiving "intelligence that terrorists from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists organizations were located in the building and using civilians present there as human shields." CNN is not able to independently confirm the claims made by the IDF.
• Hezbollah targets: Israeli fighter jets struck alleged Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon after 18  Israelis were injured  when the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group attacked a village in northern Israel. The IDF said three civilians were among the 18 people injured in the attack, the rest being soldiers.
• Response to Iran's attack: Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel’s response to Iran’s attack should inflict a “disproportionate toll” and “rock Tehran” to deter Iran from future strikes. Also, French President Emmanuel Macron called for widening sanctions against Iran that can also target industries supporting missiles and drones production.
• Aid to Gaza: The first shipment of aid to the Gaza Strip to be delivered into Ashdod Port was transferred to Gaza Wednesday, according to the Israeli military. The IDF said eight World Food Programme (WFP) trucks carrying flour entered via the Kerem Shalom Crossing after being inspected at Ashdod.

First aid shipment to Gaza through Ashdod Port enters the Gaza Strip

From CNN’s Benjamin Brown

The first shipment of aid to the Gaza Strip to be delivered into Ashdod Port was transferred to Gaza Wednesday, according to the Israeli military. 

The Israel Defense Forces said eight World Food Programme (WFP) trucks carrying flour entered via the Kerem Shalom Crossing after being inspected at Ashdod.

Israel earlier this month announced its decision to facilitate aid deliveries via the port.

At the time, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the development but said the “real test” would be to see whether aid was “effectively reaching people who it needed throughout Gaza.”

CNN has reached out to the WFP for comment.

Israeli military says it killed and arrested militants during operation in northern Gaza

From CNN's Benjamin Brown

The Israeli military claims to have killed and arrested several militants during an operation in the civilian area of Beit Hanoun in the northeastern Gaza Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces said it had raided a building complex that included two schools after receiving "intelligence that terrorists from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists organizations were located in the building and using civilians present there as human shields."

CNN is not able to independently confirm the claims made by the IDF.

The IDF said it told civilians to leave the building before entering during its joint operation with the Israel Security Agency, Israel's domestic security agency, also known as Shin Bet or Shabak.

What Gazans told CNN: People living in the area said Israeli military vehicles began an operation there on Monday afternoon, firing shots and rounds of artillery shelling. Local residents said that Israeli forces had surrounded three schools early Tuesday morning, including one where hundreds of people had been sheltering. They ordered people to leave the schools and detained dozens of men, including some elderly people and teenagers over the age of 15, according to residents. An elderly woman who had been sheltering in one of the schools said Israeli soldiers came in the middle of the night and arrested several men and women.

Nearly 14,000 children killed in Gaza since war began, according to UNICEF

From CNN's Hande Atay Alam

More than 13,800 children have been killed in Gaza Strip since the start of the war on October 7, according to United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Catherine Russell.

"Thousands have been injured and thousands more are on the brink of famine," she said during a news conference in New York, according to a statement from her organization.

In a separate statement, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women said that "one child is injured or dies every 10 minutes" in Gaza. The statement added that more than 10,000 women have been killed in Gaza since the war began, and 6,000 of them left 19,000 orphaned children behind.

UNICEF communication specialist Tess Ingram, who recently visited Gaza, said during a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday that what struck her was the number of wounded children she saw.

"Not just in the hospitals, but on the streets, in their makeshift shelters, going about their now permanently altered lives," she said.

German airline says it will avoid Iranian airspace following weekend attacks on Israel

Germany’s Lufthansa airline has announced it will extend its suspension of flights to the capitals of Iran and Lebanon due to the security situation in the region.

Flights to Tehran and Beirut will remain canceled up to and including April 30, Lufthansa said in a statement Wednesday. The airline also said it would continue not to use Iranian airspace until the end of the month.

“The Lufthansa Group is continuously monitoring and assessing the security situation in the Middle East and is in close contact with the authorities,” the airline said.

Lufthansa first suspended flights to the Iranian capital of Tehran last week and had already once extended its suspension.

French president calls for widening sanctions against Iran

From CNN’s Joseph Ataman

French President Emmanuel Macron called for widening sanctions against Iran that can also target industries supporting missiles and drones production.

“Our duty is to broaden these sanctions,” he said Wednesday while in Brussels for a meeting between European leaders.

His comments comes after more than 300 projectiles – including around 170 drones and over 120 ballistic missiles – were fired toward Israel in a retaliatory aerial attack by Iran on Saturday.

Iranian drones have been widely used in other conflicts, including by Russia against Ukrainian infrastructure targets.

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