asset
Americannoun
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a useful and desirable thing or quality.
Organizational ability is an asset.
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a single item of ownership having exchange value.
Our summer home is an asset we're not willing to sell.
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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.
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(in intelligence and information gathering) a person followed or spied upon to obtain information, who may be consenting, forced, or unaware of being used.
They threatened to release a catalog of virtually every CIA asset within the Soviet Union.
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Military. a physical resource, such as a piece of equipment, vehicle, or building.
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assets. see assets.
noun
Discover More
Commonly, the term denotes anything of value.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
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 assai 1
Explanation
An asset is something you have that is positive. It can mean a piece of property, a piece of equipment, an ability, or even a quality. "Her facility with math is an asset when it comes to figuring out the restaurant tab. She is an asset to the group." A person's overall financial picture is determined by lining up everything they own in the asset column, and everything they owe in the liability (or debit) column.
Vocabulary lists containing asset
Hatchet
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Trumps
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This Week in Words: March 30–April 5, 2019
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“A cyber incident on a Tuesday, a drone on a Wednesday, a geopolitical shock on a Thursday and they all touch the same asset by Friday.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 4, 2026
He said Jason was a "good asset" thanks to his fame from Only Fools and Horses.
From BBC • Jul. 3, 2026
You also need an asset allocation that aligns with your financial needs and goals, and you must monitor your portfolio regularly — though not obsessively.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 3, 2026
The center was a restricted free agent, but the Lakers worked around difficult negotiating limitations by throwing in nearly every first-round asset they had in addition to digging into their $51 million in salary-cap space.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 1, 2026
His plan was to show Republican leaders that he was a valuable asset to the campaign.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
