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.
By the will of the people, the coast was enshrined in state law as a precious public asset accessible to the many, not a private playground fenced off for the few.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 11, 2026
Its head of strategic asset planning, Dr Geoff Darch, said its teams were "working 24/7 to keep taps flowing".
From BBC • Jul. 10, 2026
“These institutions have sole and exclusive authority over all investment decisions, including asset allocation, trading, rebalancing, and portfolio management,” Eric Trump wrote in an X post in May.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 10, 2026
Meanwhile, a greater need for cash forces shareholders to sell anything liquid and still show gains, creating contagion-spreading problems across asset classes.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 9, 2026
"It was a catalogue of virtually every CIA asset within the Soviet Union," Cherkashin said.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
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.
