# assets

Pronunciation: US say "AS-ets" /ˈæsɛts/; UK

## Noun

1. Property or objects of value that one possesses, especially as available to meet one's debts.
   - Simple: The things a person or company owns that are worth money, such as buildings, cash, or machines.
   - _The bank froze the couple's assets while the fraud case went to trial._
   - _Investors looked closely at the company's assets, from its factories to the patents it held._
2. Plural of asset: two or more separate useful or valuable things, qualities or people, each counted on its own, such as a person's strengths or a team's best players. — plural of asset
   - Simple: Plural of asset. Use it for more than one asset.
   - _Patience and a good memory were her chief assets as an interviewer._
   - _The agency lost two of its best assets when the network was exposed._
3. In accounting, the left side of a balance sheet, listing what an entity owns.
   - Simple: In accounting, the side of a balance sheet that lists what a company owns.
   - _The new delivery trucks were recorded under assets, and the loan that paid for them under liabilities._
   - _If the assets do not balance the other side of the sheet, something has been misposted._
4. In law, the property of a person who has died or gone bankrupt that is available to pay their debts and, for an estate, any legacies.
   - Simple: In law, what a dead or bankrupt person owns that can be used to pay what they owe.
   - _The trustee listed every one of the bankrupt's assets, down to the office chairs._
   - _Creditors are paid from the estate's assets before any legacy is distributed._
5. Breasts or buttocks when referring to a woman, and genitals when referring to a man. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A joking slang word for a woman's breasts or bottom, or a man's private parts.
   - _A crude remark about the waitress's assets got him thrown out of the bar._
   - _He adjusted his shorts, worried the camera had caught more of his assets than he intended._

## Origin

The root is Old French "assez," meaning "enough," which took the form "asetz" in Anglo-Norman. At first the word was singular and meant "enough to meet liabilities"; English speakers later reanalyzed it as a plural.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/assets (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).