What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Elect vs Assign - What's the difference?

elect | assign | Related terms |

In transitive terms the difference between elect and assign

is that elect is to choose (a candidate) in an election while assign is to attribute or sort something into categories.

As an adjective elect

is who has been elected in a specified post, but has not yet entered office.

elect

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • One chosen or set apart.
  • (uncountable, theology) In Calvinist theology, one foreordained to Heaven. In other Christian theologies, someone chosen by God for salvation.
  • * Bible, Isaiah xlii. 1
  • Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect , in whom my soul delighteth.
  • * Bible, Luke xviii. 7
  • Shall not God avenge his won elect ?

    Antonyms

    * reprobate

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To choose or make a decision (to do something)
  • To choose (a candidate) in an election
  • Adjective

    (-)
  • (used only after the noun) Who has been elected in a specified post, but has not yet entered office.
  • He is the President-elect .
  • * 1811 , Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility , chapter 16
  • She began almost to feel a dislike of Edward; and it ended, as every feeling must end with her, by carrying back her thoughts to Willoughby, whose manners formed a contrast sufficiently striking to those of his brother elect .
  • Chosen; taken by preference from among two or more.
  • * Spenser
  • colours quaint elect
  • * Bible, 1 Timothy v. 21
  • the elect angels

    assign

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (lb) To designate or set apart something for some purpose.
  • :
  • (lb) To appoint or select someone for some office.
  • :
  • (lb) To allot or give something as a task.
  • *(Robert Southey) (1774-1843)
  • *:The man who could feel thus was worthy of a better station than that in which his lot had been assigned .
  • * (1796-1859)
  • *:He assigned to his men their several posts.
  • *
  • *:Captain Edward Carlisle; 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.
  • (lb) To attribute or sort something into categories.
  • To transfer property, a legal right, etc., from one person to another.
  • To give (a value) to a variable.
  • :
  • Derived terms

    * assignment * assignable * assignation

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An assignee.
  • (obsolete) A thing relating or belonging to something else; an appurtenance.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns , as girdles, hangers, and so.
    English transitive verbs