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 the absence of jurors, the coroner said there was much assessment by the state of Uddin's potential risk to others, but he had seen "nothing" showing any assessment of risks to him.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

The prosecution alleges there had been no risk assessment for lifting pallets of bricks so close to members of the public, and claimed Higgins Homes had not considered the safety of people outside the site.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

Contributing to that assessment, he claimed, is a perceived inability or unwillingness to effectively fight certain types of crime.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

The broker has a “lighten” rating and a A$14.00/share price target on Lynas, both of which are under review pending a detailed assessment of the acquisition, it says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

Diaz said I didn’t need to take any kind of assessment test, Mom is making me take one that she had Alex print out for us from the internet.

From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy

Teachers refused to check homework or administer mandatory assessments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

Participants completed psychological assessments and kept records of caffeine intake and diet.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026

A 2026 Public Policy Institute of California survey found that districts used 24 different assessments, along with other exams and report cards, to satisfy the basic-skills requirement among fifth-graders.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026

The paper reports that the decision to delay assessments is because the NHS is struggling to meet the "surging demand", and cannot afford the cost of the number of assessments people are seeking.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026

And each man had made brutally harsh assessments of the other, rooted in their quite different convictions about the proper course the American Revolution should take.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Related Words

• appraisal
• estimate
• judgment