assay
Americanverb (used with object)
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assays,
present (3rd person singular)
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assayed,
past participle, past
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assaying
present participle
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to examine or analyze.
to assay a situation; to assay an event.
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Metallurgy. to analyze (an ore, alloy, etc.) in order to determine the quantity of gold, silver, or other metal in it.
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Pharmacology. to subject (a drug) to an analysis for the determination of its potency or composition.
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to judge the quality of; assess; evaluate.
to assay someone's efforts.
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to try or test; put to trial.
to assay one's strength; to assay one's debating abilities.
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to attempt; try; essay.
to assay a dance step.
verb (used without object)
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assays,
present (3rd person singular)
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assayed,
past participle, past
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assaying
present participle
noun
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assays
plural
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Metallurgy. determination of the amount of metal, especially gold or silver, in an ore, alloy, etc.
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a substance undergoing analysis or trial.
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a detailed report of the findings in assaying a substance.
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Archaic. examination; trial; attempt; essay.
verb
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to subject (a substance, such as silver or gold) to chemical analysis, as in the determination of the amount of impurity
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(tr) to attempt (something or to do something)
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(tr; may take a clause as object) to test, analyse, or evaluate
to assay the significance of early childhood experience
noun
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an analysis, esp a determination of the amount of metal in an ore or the amounts of impurities in a precious metal
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( as modifier )
an assay office
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a substance undergoing an analysis
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a written report on the results of an analysis
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a test
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archaic an attempt
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A quantitative determination of the amount of a given substance in a particular sample. Assays are regularly used to determine the purity of precious metals. They can be performed by wet methods or dry methods. In the wet method, the sample is dissolved in a reagent, like an acid, until the purified metal is separated out. In the dry method, the sample is mixed with a flux (a substance such as borax or silica that helps lower the melting temperature) and then the sample is heated to the point where impurities in the metal fuse with the flux, leaving the purified metal as a residue.
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A bioassay.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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assaysimple
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assayssimple
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have assayedperfect
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has assayedperfect
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am assayingprogressive
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are assayingprogressive
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is assayingprogressive
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have been assayingperfect progressive
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has been assayingperfect progressive
Past
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assayedsimple
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had assayedperfect
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was assayingprogressive
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were assayingprogressive
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had been assayingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of assay
1250–1300; Middle English < Middle French; variant of essay
Explanation
An assay is a breakdown of a material, examining the individual parts that make up the whole. When you assay a situation, you look at all the elements that created the problem in order to come up with a solution. The word assay comes from the French word essai, which means "trial," an appropriate sense for a word that means to examine for analysis. As a noun, assay means a test or appraisal to determine the components of a substance or object. As a verb, it refers to the act of analyzing, or of conducting that test. It is usually used in chemistry-related fields like metallurgy and pharmaceuticals, but you can also assay a poem.
Vocabulary lists containing assay
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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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.
See Examples For:
The liver fibrosis assay described in the study remains a prototype and has not yet been introduced as a clinical test.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 6, 2026
To measure individual circadian phases, Prof. Dr. Achim Kramer developed the BodyTime assay.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 3, 2026
Dash, whose team includes former software engineers from Moderna, automates common laboratory tests such as Elisa, or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, which is used for tasks such as evaluating a drug’s safety and efficacy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2025
We set up an inhibition assay in test tubes.
From Salon ● Dec. 16, 2024
Tom said seriously, “If the assay showed enough nickel and silver, wouldn’t it pay to mine it?”
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Secondly, recent assays have extended mineralisation outside the existing Bramaderos Resource, analyst Peter Kormendy says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
To measure how well the compounds could combat the virus, the team used plaque reduction assays.
From Science Daily ● May 7, 2026
The analysts expect management to continue highlighting uptake of innovative instruments and assays in areas like pathology and immunoassay through the year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026
The CuSTOM Accelerator team continues working to automate organoid assays and enable high-throughput screening across large, genetically diverse donor populations.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2025
If such a haplogroup turned up in Pena’s assays, it could write a new chapter in the early history of Native Americans.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
On the other hand, transformation is often assayed by incorporating an antibiotic-resistance gene in the plasmid to be transferred into the host organism.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
As the components of these natural toxins continue to be assayed by evolving technologies, the number of promising molecules is also growing.
From New York Times ● May 3, 2022
It put him at the head of a trio that assayed the compositions of Steve Swallow, a bassist/composer and Scofield’s mentor.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 27, 2021
That was followed by another sweaty hour in which Hinterhäuser assayed all six of Ustvolskaya’s piano sonatas, written between 1947 and 1988, with no break between them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2018
I assayed to throw up the Sash, that I might longer watch his Progress, who was the great Work of my Hands, but would not lift.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
"The refined bullion is analysed to the highest levels of accuracy, on various methods of gold assaying," says James Jose, managing director at CGR.
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2024
The latter stands for Lucius Plaetorius Cestianus, who was a treasurer of sorts for Brutus and oversaw the minting and assaying of his coins.
From New York Times ● Mar. 22, 2023
But assaying information — weighing it, analyzing it, separating the gold from the pyrite — still depends on old-fashioned human judgment.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 24, 2021
Word reaches us that Mr. Ben Schwartz has accepted an engagement at the Paramount Studios of Hollywood, California, where he will be assaying the role of Sonic the Hedgehog.
From Slate ● Aug. 9, 2018
My little boy is near me, awkwardly assaying his first steps in the garden.
From Woman by Magdeleine Marx
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
