assessment
Pluralassessments
- 1An appraisal or evaluation of the quality, value, or significance of something.
Her frank assessment of the company's finances worried the board.
Accurate assessment of flood risk requires years of rainfall data.
Similarevaluation, appraisal, analysis, judgment, estimation
- 2The act of assessing a tax, levy, or duty, or the amount of tax that has been assessed.
Property owners can appeal the county's assessment if they believe it is too high.
The new assessment on imported steel raised costs for several manufacturers.
Similarlevy, tax, duty, valuation
Note
In public finance, the word names the official judgment of what property, income or goods are worth, which then sets the tax, duty or special charge owed. It works in two ways. As a mass noun it is the process (land subject to assessment). As a count noun it is the resulting sum, the figure an owner can appeal. The broader sense of appraisal splits the same way.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from the verb "assess" combined with the suffix "-ment".