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

An end to the conflict doesn’t contradict U.S. interest-rate rise expectations following strong U.S. data although the Federal Reserve might not agree with this assessment, she says.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 15, 2026

These include balance training, resistance exercise, and personalized fall prevention programs that combine approaches such as exercise, hazard assessment, and education based on an individual's specific risk factors.

From Science Daily • Jun. 15, 2026

The report, compiled from banking data and the most comprehensive assessment of fraud losses in the UK, reveals:

From BBC • Jun. 14, 2026

“We got to learn by stopping, taking an assessment, and listening to the community. And we really wanted to change the culture of Fringe.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026

My mother has since told me that she intuited the real reason for the psychological assessment, but chose not to dwell on it.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

Related Words

• appraisal
• estimate
• judgment