assess

IPA/əˈses/
KK[əsˈɛs]IPA/əˈses/

assess — verb

  • assesspresent simple I / you / we / they
  • assesseshe / she / it
  • assessedpast simple
  • assessing-ing form

1. to look at someone or something carefully so that you can form a clear opinion a

1.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

to look at someone or something carefully so that you can form a clear opinion about how good, large, serious, or valuable they are.

Example

Doctors are still trying to assess the full extent of Mei-Lin's injuries after the crash.

assess + noun: gathering information before judging

The teachers met on Friday to assess how each child had progressed during the term.

assess + wh-clause showing the question being judged

Common collocations
  • assess the situation
  • assess the damage
  • assess the risk
  • carefully assess
  • assess the impact of
  • assess a student's progress
Synonyms
  • evaluate

    very close in meaning; slightly more formal and common in academic or business reports

  • appraise

    stresses giving an official value, often to property, art, or job performance

  • gauge

    less formal; often used for feelings, mood, or hard-to-measure reactions

  • weigh up

    informal phrasal verb; suggests comparing pros and cons before deciding

Antonyms
  • ignore

    to deliberately not look at or consider something

  • overlook

    to fail to notice or judge something that should have been examined

Grammar Patterns

assess + noun

assess + wh-clause

assess whether/how/what

Usage Note

Subject is usually a person or group with relevant authority or expertise (a doctor, a teacher, an engineer, a committee). Frequently passive when the result is a measured amount: 'be assessed at $5 million'. The wh-clause pattern ('assess how/whether/what…') is far more common than a simple noun object when the question itself matters.

Common Mistakes

I assessed that the meal was delicious.
I thought the meal was delicious.
'assess' is for careful, often professional judgement, not casual opinions about taste.
She assessed to learn Japanese.
She decided to learn Japanese.
'assess' takes a noun or wh-clause, not a to-infinitive.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All four words mean to form a careful judgement, but they differ in tone and typical context. 'Assess' is the everyday formal choice in schools, hospitals, and offices — a doctor assesses an injury, a teacher assesses a student. 'Evaluate' is very close but feels slightly more academic and is preferred when weighing evidence or results: researchers evaluate data. 'Appraise' suggests an official, often numerical valuation by an expert — a jeweller appraises a ring, a manager appraises an employee's yearly performance. 'Gauge' is less formal and is used for things that are hard to measure exactly, especially feelings or reactions: 'It was hard to gauge the audience's mood.' If you can put a number on it, prefer assess or appraise; if you are sensing a vague signal, prefer gauge.

assess ↗evaluate ↗appraisegauge ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • assess the extent of
  • assess the effectiveness of
  • be hard to assess
  • needs to be assessed

Prepositions

  • assess for (suitability)
  • assess as (a category)
  • assess at (an amount)
  • assess on (a basis)

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

Assess came into English in the late 1300s through Old French 'assesser', built on the Latin verb 'assidere', meaning 'to sit beside'. In medieval courts, an assessor literally sat next to the judge to help fix the amount of a tax or fine, so the early English meaning was 'to set the value of for taxation'. Over the following centuries the word broadened from money to any kind of careful judgement, giving us today's general sense of weighing the size, quality, or importance of something.