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

See Examples For:

assessment assessments

In order to operate, the train will have to undergo 30 days of successful consecutive testing, receive an independent overview and an assessment by Los Angeles World Airports.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026

Rubio offered a more cautious assessment of the diplomatic contacts, saying Tuesday’s conversation had been with mediators and that he didn’t want to characterize it as moving in either direction.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

The IMF's managing director repeated the influential body's assessment that the global economy was affected by two forces "pushing in opposite directions" - the energy price shock and investment in AI.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

Earlier this year, Freddie Mac announced that, for mortgages with applications received on or after Jan. 4, 2027, the minimum replacement-reserve allocation will rise to 15% from 10% of annual budgeted assessment income.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026

“Let’s focus on the assessment today. I’d like everyone to take their time. If you’re done early, check it over.”

From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty

Children’s developmental screenings and assessments would not be required to be conducted in a family’s language of choice.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026

In part, that is because self-reported sleep measures often show poor correlation with objective assessments, making it difficult to capture real-world sleep patterns.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 24, 2026

Yet those cards said her daughter was thriving, while state assessments said nearly every child in her school was behind.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

The group said engineers and building inspectors had been at the site to carry out structural assessments, and its team was working to assist guests.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

And while Americans were still digesting these worrisome assessments, out of the Middle East came the first sketchy reports of Egyptian troops massing on the Israeli border.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

Related Words

• appraisal
• estimate
• judgment