assize means A session or inquiry made before a court or jury. It carries an Arena rating of 1585, earned across 25 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, assize ranks #1,071 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,620 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,080 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #3,762 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
assize is pronounced /əˈsaɪz/.
Why “assize” is a great word
ASSIZE — [Noun] A periodic session of a court or an inquest before a jury, historically an itinerant court in medieval England. From Middle English assise, from Old French assises (feminine plural of the past participle of asseoir, 'to seat, to sit'), from Latin assidēre ('to sit beside, to assist in judgment'), from ad- ('to, at') + sedēre ('to sit'). Unlike a "trial"—a general legal proceeding—or an "inquest"—a specific inquiry into a death—an assize was the solemn, periodic arrival of the sovereign's justice itself. It was the creak of the judge's wagon on a rutted road, the unfurling of the royal writ in a drafty hall, and the weary faces of local men impaneled to weigh their neighbors' fates—the cumbersome, temporary machinery of order imposed upon the perpetual disorder of the realm.
Etymology
From Middle English assise, from Old French assises, feminine plural participle of Old French asseoir (“to sit”), from Latin assidere.
noun
- A session or inquiry made before a court or jury.
- The verdict reached or pronouncement given by a panel of jurors.
- An assembly of knights and other substantial men, with a bailiff or justice, in a certain place and at a certain time, for public business.
- A statute or ordinance, especially one regulating weights and measures.e.g.“the assize of bread and other provisions”
- Anything fixed or reduced to a certainty in point of time, number, quantity, quality, weight, measure, etc.e.g.“rent of assize”
- A measure, dimension, or size.e.g.“an hundred cubits high by just assize” — 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Visons”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:
verb
- To assess; to set or fix the quantity or price.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- sise 71% match — six vs assize →
- affeer 64% match — To assess or reduce an arbitrary penalty or amercement to a precise sum; to fix the market value of. vs assize →
- sess 63% match — A tax; an assessment. vs assize →
- assess 63% match — To determine, estimate or judge the value of; to evaluate; to estimate. vs assize →
- assizes 62% match — The regional courts of England and Wales, which were replaced by the Crown Courts in 1971. vs assize →
- assessee 61% match — Something or someone that is assessed. vs assize →
- assizer 61% match — An officer who has the care or inspection of weights and measures. vs assize →
- assessment 61% match — The act of assessing or an amount (of tax, levy or duty etc) assessed. vs assize →