Meaning & use
assessment
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A careful judgment about how good, serious or valuable something is.
Grammar: Often 'an assessment of' something.
Patterns
- an assessment of something
- make an assessment
The doctor gave an honest assessment of her condition.
A quick assessment of the damage took an hour.
Experts made a careful assessment of the risks.
nouncountable
A test or task used to measure what a student has learned.
Grammar: Often plural in education: end-of-term assessments.
Patterns
- an assessment in something
Students must pass the final assessment to graduate.
The school replaced exams with continuous assessment.
She prepared for the math assessment all weekend.
nouncountablefinanceformal
An official amount worked out for tax or a fee.
Grammar: Used mainly in finance and law.
Patterns
- a tax assessment
The city sent a new property tax assessment.
He appealed the assessment on his home.
The insurer arrived at an assessment of the loss.
Word forms
| plural | assessments |
|---|
Common combinations
- make an assessment
- The engineer must make an assessment before work starts.
- risk assessment
- A risk assessment is required for each trip.
- honest assessment
- Give me your honest assessment.
- formal assessment
- The course ends with a formal assessment.
- initial assessment
- The nurse completed an initial assessment.
Synonyms and how they differ
- evaluation
- Evaluation is very close but often implies a full study of value, whereas assessment can be quick.
- appraisal
- Appraisal suggests an expert judgment of worth, often of property or job performance.
- judgment
- Judgment is broader and can be a personal opinion without careful study.
- estimate
- Estimate gives a rough number, whereas assessment gives a considered judgment.
Word family
- assess verb
- to judge the quality or value of something
- assessor noun
- a person who makes official judgments
- reassess verb
- to judge again
- assessable adjective
- able to be judged or measured
Commonly confused: assessment or assignment?
assessment vs assignment
An assignment is work given to someone, while an assessment judges or measures.
Practice
The nurse made a quick ___ of the patient's injuries.
Choose one answer.
Assessment is a careful judgment; assumption would mean taking something for granted without checking.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “assessment”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.