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.

---

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

---

assessment Cultural  

1. The appraisal of property for the purposes of taxation.

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

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

In recent weeks, Bass has offered her own critical assessment of Raman, saying the democratic socialist struggled to work closely with others — even her own allies.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026

Richardson said that the use of breast cancer risk assessment scores and new screening protocols has saved lives, but that the wealth of information has downsides, too.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 7, 2026

She didn’t have a necropsy kit to do a detailed assessment, but noticed there wasn’t much blood, which might indicate it had severe gashes and died from blood loss.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 3, 2026

It is recognised as a specific learning difficulty and this means it is an educational assessment.

From BBC • Jun. 3, 2026

In business, education, science, and so forth, most productivity is determined by an evaluation of employees or students, and funding is often allocated based on that assessment.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

Related Words

• appraisal
• estimate
• judgment