Meaning & use
tangible asset
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountablebusinessfinance
a physical item of value that a person or company owns, such as land, buildings, equipment, or cash.
Grammar: Countable: one tangible asset, two tangible assets. Often used in the plural.
Patterns
- a tangible asset
- tangible assets
The company's tangible assets include factories and machinery.
Land is a tangible asset that usually increases in value over time.
Investors often prefer tangible assets like gold during uncertain times.
Word forms
| plural | tangible assets |
|---|
Common combinations
- net tangible assets
- The firm's net tangible assets are worth over a million dollars.
- tangible asset value
- Analysts calculated the tangible asset value of the company.
- hold tangible assets
- Many people hold tangible assets such as property or gold.
- tangible fixed assets
- The balance sheet lists tangible fixed assets like buildings and vehicles.
Synonyms and how they differ
- physical asset
- Very similar, but 'physical asset' is less technical and can include things not used in accounting.
- real asset
- Often means physical property like land and buildings; narrower than 'tangible asset'.
Opposites
Word family
- tangible adjective
- Real and able to be touched or clearly seen.
- tangibility noun
- The quality of being real or able to be touched.
Commonly confused: tangible asset or intangible asset?
tangible asset vs intangible asset
An intangible asset has no physical form, such as a patent, trademark, or goodwill.
Practice
Which of the following is a tangible asset?
Choose one answer.
A delivery van is a physical item owned by the company, so it is a tangible asset. A patent, a brand name, and employees' skills are intangible assets because they have no physical form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tangible asset”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.