Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To estimate the value of (property) for taxation.
- v. To set or determine the amount of (a payment, such as a tax or fine).
- v. To charge (a person or property) with a special payment, such as a tax or fine.
- v. Sports To charge a player, coach, or team with (a foul or penalty).
- v. To determine the value, significance, or extent of; appraise. See Synonyms at estimate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To set, fix, or charge a certain sum upon, by way of tax: as, to assess each individual in due proportion.
- To estimate the value or amount of (property or income) as a basis for taxation.—3. To set, fix, or determine: as, it is the province of a jury to assess damages.
- n. Assessment.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To determine, estimate or judge the value of; to evaluate
- v. transitive To impose or charge, especially as punishment for an infraction.
- v. transitive To calculate and demand (the tax money due) from a person or entity.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To value; to make a valuation or official estimate of for the purpose of taxation.
- v. To apportion a sum to be paid by (a person, a community, or an estate), in the nature of a tax, fine, etc.; to impose a tax upon (a person, an estate, or an income) according to a rate or apportionment.
- v. To determine and impose a tax or fine upon (a person, community, estate, or income); to tax.
- v. To fix or determine the rate or amount of.
WordNet 3.0
- v. evaluate or estimate the nature, quality, ability, extent, or significance of
- v. charge (a person or a property) with a payment, such as a tax or a fine
- v. estimate the value of (property) for taxation
- v. set or determine the amount of (a payment such as a fine)
Etymologies
- From Old French assesser, from Medieval Latin assessare, originally the frequentative of Latin assessus, past participle of assidere. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English assessen, from Old French assesser, from Latin assidēre, assess-, to sit by as an assistant judge : ad-, ad- + sedēre, to sit; see sed- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“What we have got to assess is the value of the deal against the dislocation or whatever of any potential comments from the regulators.”
The Wall Street Journal: Rio Tinto: Iron Ore Venture with BHP Still 'Live Issue'
“The second thing they must guess/assess is their faith in you to do accomplish something of a similar magnitude to the comps, generally expressed as a percentage. posted by redbarren at 6: 27 PM”
“The first thing you have to assess is why did you lose," he said.”
USATODAY.com - Federer too much for Agassi en route to U.S. Open title
“But the first thing you have to assess is why did you lose.”
“The most difficult risk to assess is the political uncertainty, which would, of course, be aggravated by any or all of the other uncertainties.”
“- Related to the first question, to what degree does the rubric assess for specific skills and knowledge that are needed by students as they progress from this course to others?”
“In test process management, it is important to plemented into the project is efficient, effective in terms assess the effectiveness of different testing techniques, in of factors such as cost, time, and the number of bugs that terms of their ability to expose errors and also the size of can be detected.”
“Issuing the security advisory is Step 3, called assess and stabilize, where "the engineering team investigates and develops the solution, while the communications team reaches out to provide guidance to customers and partners.”
“Then assess, which is "best". so, do you know any software can convert to a good MPEG2 file, the best converter”
“He also points out that while conventional dictionaries offer a number of senses to define each word, little help has traditionally been given to the reader to enable them to assess which is the most likely meaning for their purposes.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘assess’.
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BUDG - general terms
Budgetese - not a sexy topic but a very comprehensive list of words and collocations used in EU circles. Budgeting experts please comment and expand.
heading, across-the-board ..., emergency reserve, frontload, mopping-up, performance reserve, positive margin, negative margin, public finances, structural operat..., administrative ex..., management of EU ... and 657 more...
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CONT - general terms
additionality, audit trail, accounting standards, auditing standards, general audit obj..., a posteriori audit, a priori audit, above board, acceptable error ..., access rights, accountability, accountable entities and 1283 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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Words that sound dirty but aren't.
When you want to be pedantic AND childish.
titular, masticate, condiment, titmouse, penal, formication, social intercourse, assassination, cacophony, lucubrate, rectify, banal and 131 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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the author [suggests] adjectives
allude to, refer to, hint, insinuate, intimate, present, prompt, inspire, advise, notes, proposes, suggests and 42 more...
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Ruzuzu's Big Ass List
If you're looking for long s examples, see here.
ass, assess, asshole, basso profondo, basso profundo, crass, assay, mr. ass itch, compass, slag-ass macaroon, brass, class and 41 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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Keyboard Hopscotch
You may start on any key. You may repeat a character, or travel to an adjacent key on the keyboard. On my qwerty keyboard, I may follow s with w, e, d, x, z, a, or (repeating) s. (If you use az...
assert, weeds, trews, treed, sewer, sewed, seeds, sawer, sawed, reeds, erred, asses and 65 more...
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hildjj's Words
bookmarklet, demisemiquaver, zeitgeist, hermeneutics, oligarch, quisling, absinthe, mellifluent, verisimilitude, implacable, necrotic, nacreous and 243 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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GRE
Taisha GRE Bible
archaic, archetype, archipelago, architect, archive, arctic, ardor, arduous, argot, arid, armory, arrest and 289 more...
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nail01
sentimental, eloquent, inevitable, pretentious, verbose, aptly, stoically, grandiloquent, valedictory, assiduous, exorbitant, wreaked and 154 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for assess.

qroqqa Impact assessment seems a perfectly normal kind of assessing. You can also study, evaluate, judge, or prepare for something that will came about in the future. Jul 21, 2010
bookriter In the UN, a peculiar usage of the word "assess" is emerging. One source is a General Comment by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which refers to "process of child impact assessment (predicting the impact of any proposed law, policy or budgetary allocation which affects children and the enjoyment of their rights) and child impact evaluation (evaluating the actual impact of implementation)." (General Comment No.5, para.45) It seems to me a misuse, because I don't believe that the work "assess" should be used to refer to something that doesn't exist, because it is in the future. Comments? Jul 21, 2010