assembly
Pluralassemblies
- 1A group of people who come together in one place for a shared reason.
Like everyone in a club meeting together in one room.
A large assembly of neighbors met in the park to plan the summer festival.
Workers held an assembly to discuss the new safety rules.
UsageSay an assembly of people. People hold an assembly.
Similargathering, meeting, congregation, crowd, convention
Note
- 2A group of chosen people, usually elected, who meet to talk about issues and make decisions or laws.
Like a class voting on rules, but for a whole state.
The assembly voted to raise the minimum wage.
Members of the assembly debated the new bill for hours.
UsageNames start with a capital: the General Assembly. People are elected to it.
Similarlegislature, parliament, chamber, congress
Note
- 3Putting separate parts together to make one finished thing.
Like building a model from a kit, piece by piece.
The toy's assembly took us about an hour.
Furniture assembly is easier with two people.
UsageOften in assembly line and some assembly required.
Similarconstruction, building, fabrication
Oppositedisassembly
- 4A group of parts joined together to work as one machine or device.
Like the parts inside a clock that all work together to tell time.
The tail assembly broke off during the crash.
Replace the whole assembly if one gear fails.
UsageIt usually comes after another noun: a valve assembly.
Note
- 5A meeting of students and teachers from all or part of a school, often in the morning, for news, talks, or prayers.
Our school holds an assembly in the gym every Friday morning.
A firefighter came to talk to us at the assembly about staying safe.
UsagePeople say school assembly and at the assembly.
Less common meanings
- 6Short form of assembly language. It names the low-level language that sits very close to a computer's own code.
She wrote the boot loader in assembly to save memory.
Optimizing the inner loop in assembly doubled the speed.
UsageYou write code in assembly.
Note
- 7A drum beat or bugle call that tells soldiers to gather together.
Like a school bell that tells everyone it's time to line up.
The bugler sounded the assembly at dawn.
When they heard the assembly, the soldiers ran to form ranks.
UsageSay the assembly. A bugler sounds it.
Note
- 8In .NET, a software building block containing code or resources and information describing its contents and version.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English assemblee, which came from Anglo-Norman and Old French words for a gathering.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Assembly derives from Middle English assemblee. en.wiktionary.org
- The Middle English word came from Anglo-Norman and Old French forms. en.wiktionary.org
- The French source word meant a gathering. fr.wikisource.org