assessment

American  

[uh-ses-muhnt] / əˈsɛs mənt /

noun

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

• misassessment
  noun
• overassessment
  noun
• proassessment
  adjective
• reassessment
  noun
• self-assessment
  noun

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

They also interviewed the participants using the Psychopathy Checklist -- Revised, a widely used psychological assessment designed to measure psychopathic traits.

From Science Daily • May 10, 2026

Initial estimates suggest work at the site could cost around $1.7 million, though the figure could rise following a full assessment, he added, noting that repairs could take "two or more years".

From Barron's • May 10, 2026

"Don't think the whole assessment of the direction of where we need to go will be judged on one or two games," he added.

From BBC • May 9, 2026

Yet Drs. Makary and Prasad didn’t seem to understand that the risk-benefit assessment for approving drugs for deadly diseases must be different.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026

Then he laughs at his own assessment of me.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

Related Words

• appraisal
• estimate
• judgment