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

Second, the institutions and universities that house the laboratories and employ the researchers will be responsible for the accuracy of the researchers’ risk assessment to ensure no risky work is proposed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

Neso described the report as a "forward-looking" assessment of risks that could become more significant in the 2030s unless addressed.

From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026

In a 2018 assessment, more than 50% of DWP’s trunk line segments were more than 65 years old and 11% were more than 100 years old.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026

That’s the assessment from Goldman Sachs analysts led by Ryan Hammond, who crunched the numbers based on last year’s earnings reports.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026

These all weighed heavily in his final assessment.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

A statistical analysis showed that having an adviser did not affect investors’ assessments of their investment strategies or their financial futures.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026

These assessments included responses to statements such as, "I've been feeling optimistic about the future" and "I've been dealing with problems well."

From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026

Britain requires detailed environmental assessments for projects of just 150 homes, while in many EU nations, the threshold is 2,000.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

Their findings will be used to update England Red List assessments and guidance for anglers to improve survival rates of sharks they release.

From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026

Both coaches continued to issue the customary gloomy assessments of their boys’ chances.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Related Words

• appraisal
• estimate
• judgment