assessor

American  

[uh-ses-er] / əˈsɛs ər /

noun

assessors plural

1. a person who makes assessments, especially for purposes of taxation.

2. an adviser or assistant to a judge, especially one serving as a specialist in some field.

3. Archaic.

   1. a person who shares another's position, rank, or dignity.

   2. a person sitting beside another in an advisory capacity; an advisory associate.

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assessor British  

/ əˈsɛsə, ˌæsɛˈsɔːrɪəl /

noun

1. a person who evaluates the merits, importance, etc, of something, esp (in Britain) work prepared as part of a course of study

2. a person who values property for taxation

3. a person who estimates the value of damage to property for insurance purposes

4. a person with technical expertise called in to advise a court on specialist matters

5. a person who shares another's position or rank, esp in an advisory capacity

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• assessorship
  noun
• assessorial
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• assessors
  plural

Etymology

Origin of assessor

1350–1400; Middle English assessour < Medieval Latin assessor one who assesses taxes, Latin: a judge's helper. See assess, -tor

Explanation

An assessor is a person whose job involves determining how much a house or building is worth. After an assessor establishes the value of a property, it can be taxed appropriately. An assessor, sometimes called a "tax assessor," works for a city or county, aiding the process of collecting taxes from people who own property there. In order to figure out how much someone owes, an assessor compares the person's house to the others in the neighborhood and tallies up things like square footage, number of rooms, and acres of land. In Latin an assessor is "an assistant," though in Late Latin it means "one who assesses taxes."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

assessor assessors

The question over whether Jingye should be compensated for the nationalisation based on the value of the company will be determined by an independent assessor, Business Secretary Peter Kyle told the BBC.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

Jesse Salinas, the voter registrar, assessor, and clerk-recorder of California’s Yolo County who serves as president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials, said there is a tradeoff between speed and security.

From Salon ● Jun. 9, 2026

County assessor, and topics such as transparency and Proposition 13 are top of mind.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026

A state tax tribunal ruled that the Pung estate was entitled to the exemption, but the local assessor appealed and reported the property as delinquent.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026

“The regulatory entomologists ... function as prosecutor, judge and jury, tax assessor and collector and sheriff to enforce their own orders,” said Connecticut entomologist Neely Turner.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

The close ties between private equity and auditors have raised concerns over the potential threat to the independence of auditors, who are intended to be objective assessors of financial information.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025

The most important people in the country all along were the rule-followers—corporate attorneys, regional judges, visa-processing functionaries, tax assessors, customs officials, food and drug regulators.

From Slate ● Sep. 19, 2025

In the southern city of Nabatieh on Wednesday, where its Ottoman-era market and surrounding businesses were completely destroyed, people were still waiting for the Hezbollah assessors to arrive.

From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2024

You wink to the show’s cancellation and the state of the industry this season with the church’s decision to shut down the assessors program even though it’s been a success.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2024

But most of us are, like Molly’s parents, terrible risk assessors.

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt

Related Words

• authority
• court
• critic
• expert
• inspector
• justice
• referee