assay

/ˈæseɪ/

assay noun: trial, attempt.

Noun

assay (plural assays)

Trial, attempt.
- I am withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the assay than it now seems at distance.[1644], [John Milton], Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib, [London]: […] [Thomas Underhill and/or Thomas Johnson], →OCLC
Examination and determination; test.
- This cannot be, by no assay of reason.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
The qualitative or quantitative chemical analysis of something.
Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried.
- Through many hard assayes which did betide.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 35
Tested purity or value.
- Purfled with gold and pearl of rich assay.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 13
The act or process of ascertaining the proportion of a particular metal in an ore or alloy; especially, the determination of the proportion of gold or silver in bullion or coin.
The alloy or metal to be assayed.

Verb

assay (third-person singular simple present assays, present participle assaying, simple past and past participle assayed)

(transitive) To attempt (something).
- To-night let us assay our plot.c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed.1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
(archaic, intransitive) To try, attempt (to do something).
- When Saul cam to Jerusalem he assayde to cople hymsilfe with the apostles, and they wer all afrayde of hym and beleved not that he was a disciple.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts
(transitive) To analyze or estimate the composition or value of (a metal, ore etc.).
(obsolete, transitive) To test the abilities of (someone) in combat; to fight.
- I wold not by my wille that ony of vs were matched with hym
  Nay said sir Gawayne not so
  it were shame to vs were he not assayed were he neuer soo good a knyghte1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xviij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV
- The marquis, in obsession for his wife,
  Longed to expose her constancy to test.
  He could not throw the thought away or rest,
  Having a marvellous passion to assay her;
  Needless, God knows, to frighten and dismay her,
  He had assayed her faith enough before
  And ever found her good; what was the...1951, Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill, The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977, page 351
To affect.
- when the heart is ill assay'd1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “August. Ægloga Octaua.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC
To try tasting, as food or drink.

assay meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

assay in Tamil

சோதனை, மதிப்பிடுதல், கணிப்பு, மதிப்பீடு, பரீட்சை, தேர்வு

assay in Urdu

پرکھنا, جانچنا, آنکنا, کسوٹی پر کسنا

assay in Bengali

ধাতুর বিশুদ্ধতা পরীক্ষা করা, মূল্যায়ন করা

assay in Malayalam

പരീക്ഷ, വിചാരണായത്നം

More languagesFewer languages

assay in Kannada: ಒರೆಹಚ್ಚು, ಲೋಹಪರೀಕ್ಷೆ
assay in Malay: cerakin
assay in Indonesian: asai, esai

Examples of assay in a sentence

After both experiments, feeding assays with two spongivorous species were conducted.
In additional assays, we confirmed the increased expression of BIG-H3, as well as TGFβ2 in ADAM17-silenced LEC.
Human bocavirus was detected using the respiratory virus panel fast assay and real-time PCR.

All 40 example sentences with assay

Forms of assay

Noun
plural	assays
Verb
third-person singular present	assays
present participle	assaying
past participle	assayed
past	assayed

Plural of assay: assays

Origin of assay

From Middle English assay (noun) and assayen (verb), from Anglo-Norman assai (noun) and Anglo-Norman assaier (verb), from Old French essai. Doublet of essay.

Words formed from assay

Phrases with assay

Words that rhyme with assay

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about assay

What does assay mean?: Assay means trial, attempt.
What is assay in Tamil?: Assay in Tamil is சோதனை, மதிப்பிடுதல், கணிப்பு. See Assay meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is assay?: Assay can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce assay?: Assay is pronounced /ˈæseɪ/.
What is the plural of assay?: The plural of assay is assays.

Words near assay in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: assay (page history and authors); assay (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); assay (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); assay (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); assay (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); assay (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-assay.wav.

Cite this entry: “assay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/assay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.