assize

A1S1S1I1Z10E1
/əˈsaɪz/

noun

A session or inquiry made before a court or jury.

“the assize of bread and other provisions”

OriginMiddle English assise ← Old French assises ← Latin assidere →
UncommonScrabble 15
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Meanings

nounassize (plural assizes)

plural assizes · alternative obsolete aßize

  1. A session or inquiry made before a court or jury.
  2. The verdict reached or pronouncement given by a panel of jurors.
  3. 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.
  4. A statute or ordinance, especially one regulating weights and measures.

    the assize of bread and other provisions

  5. Anything fixed or reduced to a certainty in point of time, number, quantity, quality, weight, measure, etc.

    rent of assize

    1 more example

    the Judgment of an Assize upon the whole

    1681, Joseph Glanvill, Sadducismus Triumphatus
  6. obsoleteA measure, dimension, or size.

    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
verbassize (third-person singular simple present assizes, present participle assizing, simple past and past participle assized)

present singular third person assizes · participle present assizing · participle past assized · past assized · alternative obsolete aßize

  1. transitiveTo assess; to set or fix the quantity or price.

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
inquest

Origin

  1. Latinassidere
  2. Old Frenchasseoir“to sit”
  3. Old Frenchassises
  4. Middle Englishassise
  5. Englishassize

From Middle English assise, from Old French assises, feminine plural participle of Old French asseoir (“to sit”), from Latin assidere.

More words from Middle English, Old French, Latin

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Latin assisa
  • assisaa session or inquiry made before a court or jury
Russian суде́бное разбира́тельство
  • суде́бное разбира́тельство (sudébnoje razbirátelʹstvo)a session or inquiry made before a court or jury

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with assize

sizesuppliesexerciseguysriseprizeliessurprisewisetiesariseadvisediesbuyscompromisefliesauthorizerevisecomprisefriesexcisepiesdyesdemise
All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

assize. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/assize

MLA

“assize.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/assize. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “assize,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/assize.

Source: assize on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.