Assigned

Assigned is the past tense and past participle of the verb assign, meaning to designate, allocate, or transfer ownership or responsibility. In general English, assigned can describe tasks, roles, or items that have been designated to a person or entity, as in “the tasks are assigned to the team” or “assigned seating.” As a participial adjective, assigned modifies nouns to indicate formal allocation.

In computing and information technology, assignment is the operation of giving a value to a variable. A value is said to be assigned to a variable when an expression is evaluated and stored in that variable. Programming languages use assignment operators, and the result is an assigned value. In databases, spreadsheets, and configuration files, fields may be assigned values during input or processing.

In project management and issue tracking, a ticket or task can be assigned to a user, indicating responsibility and workflow ownership. The status often changes to reflect the assignment, and reassignment can occur as workloads shift.

In law and business, assignment refers to the transfer of rights, remedies, or property from one party to another. An assignment agreement records the terms, and the recipient is called the assignee; the transfer is effective on completion or a specified date.

Etymology: assigned derives from Latin assignare, from ad- “to” + signum “mark.” See also assignment.