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assessment

American  
[uh-ses-muhnt] / əˈsɛs mənt /

noun

  1. the act of assessing; appraisal; evaluation.

  2. an official valuation of property for the purpose of levying a tax; an assigned value.

  3. an amount assessed as payable.


assessment British  
/ əˈsɛsmənt /

noun

  1. the act of assessing, esp (in Britain) the evaluation of a student's achievement on a course

  2. an amount determined as payable

  3. a valuation set on taxable property, income, etc

  4. evaluation; estimation

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

assessment Cultural  
  1. The appraisal of property for the purposes of taxation.


Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Etymology

Origin of assessment

First recorded in 1530–40; assess + -ment

Explanation

Assessment is a word you hear a lot around schools — an assessment is an evaluation, and one type of assessment is used to measure what someone knows or has learned. Tests and term papers can be assessment tools. More than just students are given assessments. You might bring your dad's plastic gnome collection to an expert for an assessment and find out it's worth all of $15.35. You might make a quick assessment of a sticky situation — say it's you, a tasty ham sandwich, and your hungry dog— and decide to run.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing assessment

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Their findings were published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, a journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

From Science Daily • Jun. 9, 2026

Only 18% of Los Angeles eighth-graders scored proficient in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, compared to 27% nationwide.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026

The intelligence community "assesses that Chinese leaders do not currently plan to execute an invasion of Taiwan in 2027, nor do they have a fixed timeline for achieving unification," said its Annual Threat Assessment report.

From Barron's • Mar. 19, 2026

In a letter to Phillipson last year, the EHRC's then-chairwoman, Baroness Falkner, said the watchdog had provided additional information requested by the government, including an Equality Impact Assessment, on 13 October.

From BBC • Jan. 7, 2026

I didn’t want to hear about Operational Net Assessment.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell

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