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asset

[ as-et ]
/ ˈés ɛt /
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See synonyms for: asset / assets on Thesaurus.com

noun
a useful and desirable thing or quality: Organizational ability is an asset.
a single item of ownership having exchange value: Our summer home is an asset we're not willing to sell.
(in intelligence) a person followed or spied upon to obtain information: as a participant in an operation, an asset may be consenting, forced, as by blackmail, or unaware of being used: It was a catalog of virtually every CIA asset within the Soviet Union.Compare confidential informant.
Digital Technology. one of the media components that, taken together, comprise all of the elements of a video game, such as the environments, objects, character art and animation, and sound design: All of the game assets are downloaded to your hard drive during the install, so slow load times are local and indicate a problem with your drive.
assets. See entry at assets.
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Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.
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In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as


Origin of asset

First recorded in 1525–35; back formation from assets, in phrase have assets, literally, “have enough (to pay obligations),” from Anglo-French, Old French asez “enough,” from unattested Vulgar Latin ad satis “to sufficiency”; see also assai1

OTHER WORDS FROM asset

as·set·less, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use asset in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for asset

asset
/ (ˈésɛt) /

noun
anything valuable or usefulexperience is their main asset See also assets

Word Origin for asset

C19: back formation from assets
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for asset

asset

A possession that can be turned into cash to cover liabilities.

notes for asset

Commonly, the term denotes anything of value.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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