assess - (v.): to make a judgment about a person or situation after thinking carefully about it; to calculate the value or cost of something

• Synonyms: judge, test, evaluate
• Origin: L. assidere "to sit beside" (as in to assist in the office of a judge), from ad- meaning "to" + sedere meaning "to sit." One of the judge's assistant's jobs was to decide on the amount of a fine or tax. The meaning "to estimate the value of property for the purpose of taxing it" is from 1809; this word eventually came to mean "to judge the value of a person, idea, etc." around 1934.
• Example: We will take a test in Social Studies today to assess what you have learned about regions and map skills.

Click here to do your own fun little assessment on what we've learned so far!