assessment

American  

[uh-ses-muhnt] / əˈsɛs mənt /

noun

assessments plural

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.

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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

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assessment Cultural  

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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• misassessment
  noun
• overassessment
  noun
• reassessment
  noun
• self-assessment
  noun
• proassessment
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• assessments
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

"If this were a conventional housing development for 1,250 people, it would require extensive consultation, transport assessment, environmental review and infrastructure planning," he added.

From BBC • Jul. 2, 2026

The disasters also damaged or destroyed more than 58,000 buildings, according to a preliminary assessment of satellite data published by US space agency NASA.

From Barron's • Jul. 1, 2026

The most recent eighth-grade reading scores on a key national assessment hit their lowest point since 1990; grade four scored at pre-2003 levels.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 1, 2026

The disclosure around the IPO process will finally shed light on the business models of frontier model makers, allowing an accurate assessment of profitability and the returns on the capex.

From MarketWatch • Jul. 1, 2026

Jem had been voted Most Handsome in the senior class, a reasonable assessment: he had his mother’s calflike brown eyes, the heavy Finch eyebrows, and even features.

From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee

Related Words

• appraisal
• estimate
• judgment