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.

---

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

---

assessment Cultural  

1. The appraisal of property for the purposes of taxation.

---

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

That said, if you ask the average person on the street how the country is doing, you’d probably get a much darker assessment of America.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 1, 2026

The number of days spent in California also is factored into the board’s assessment of residency.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026

But ahead of the biennial nature talks, a UN assessment warned the pace of action was insufficient to meet almost all these targets.

From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026

Every earlier assessment had rested on external appearance, and the skeletons did not support it.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2026

The physicist is angry about me taking this step with "such an incomplete assessment of the variables and the risk factors."

From "Things Not Seen" by Andrew Clements

The Pentagon has declined to give specific assessments of base damage, and major U.S. commercial satellite companies stopped releasing high-resolution imagery of military installations in the region early in the war.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026

In a later post on social media, Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said that "according to initial assessments, two individuals have lost their lives in the incident, and five others have been injured".

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026

Confirming student competence in the AI era requires redesigned assessments, supervised demonstrations, oral exams and defended portfolios.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

These early warning signs had previously gone undetected during routine radiological assessments.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026

Madison was relaying state-by-state assessments to Monticello, which were also being reported in the local press.

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

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• appraisal
• estimate
• judgment

---