different between dictate vs assign

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dict?tus, perfect passive participle of dict? (“pronounce or declare repeatedly; dictate”), frequentative of d?c? (“say, speak”).

Pronunciation

Noun

• IPA^(key): /?d?k?te?t/

Verb

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d?k?te?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?d?k?te?t/
• Rhymes: -e?t

Noun

dictate (plural dictates)

1. An order or command.

   I must obey the dictates of my conscience.

Translations

Verb

dictate (third-person singular simple present dictates, present participle dictating, simple past and past participle dictated)

1. To order, command, control.
   • 2001, Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge University Press ?ISBN, page 409,

     Trademark Owners will nevertheless try to dictate how their marks are to be represented, but dictionary publishers with spine can resist such pressure.

2. To speak in order for someone to write down the words.

3. To determine or decisively affect.

Derived terms

• dictation
• dictator

Translations

See also

• diktat

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /dik?ta?.te/, [d??k?t?ä?t??]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /dik?ta.te/, [d?ik?t???t??]

Participle

dict?te

1. vocative masculine singular of dict?tus

Verb

dict?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of dict?

English

Etymology

From Middle English assignen, from Old French assigner, asigner, from Latin assign?, from ad- + sign? (“mark, sign”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??sa?n/
• Hyphenation: as?sign
• Rhymes: -a?n

Verb

assign (third-person singular simple present assigns, present participle assigning, simple past and past participle assigned)

1. (transitive) To designate or set apart something for some purpose.

2. (transitive) To appoint or select someone for some office.

3. (transitive) To allot or give something as a task.
   • Captain Edward Carlisle […] felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, […]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.

4. (transitive) To attribute or sort something into categories.
5. (transitive, law) To transfer property, a legal right, etc., from one person to another.
6. (transitive, programming) To give (a value) to a variable.

Synonyms

• (set apart something for some purpose): allocate, earmark; see also Thesaurus:set apart
• (transfer property): consign, convey; see also Thesaurus:transfer

Derived terms

• assignment
• assignable
• assignation

Translations

Noun

assign (plural assigns)

1. An assignee.
2. (obsolete) A thing relating or belonging to something else; an appurtenance.
3. (obsolete) An assignment or appointment.
4. (obsolete) A design or purpose.