evaluation

evaluation — noun

1. the process of examining something carefully and deciding how good, important, o

1.nounB2
Definition

the process of examining something carefully and deciding how good, important, or effective it is, often by using fixed measures or standards

Example

The school board conducts an annual evaluation of each teacher's classroom performance.

evaluation of + noun phrase — core preposition pattern

Before buying a house, you should get a professional evaluation of its condition.

Common collocations
  • evaluation of [something]
  • performance evaluation
  • health evaluation
  • risk evaluation
  • conduct / carry out an evaluation
  • complete an evaluation
  • professional evaluation
  • annual evaluation
  • in the evaluation stage
Synonyms
  • assessment

    the most common synonym; slightly broader and can imply less formal methods

  • appraisal

    more formal; often used for property value or employee performance in workplace settings

  • review

    often suggests looking back at past performance or events rather than measuring against fixed criteria

  • analysis

    focuses on breaking something into parts to understand it, without necessarily judging its value

Antonyms
  • neglect

    the opposite of giving careful attention to something

Grammar Patterns

evaluation of [something]

Usage Note

When uncountable, it refers to the general process of assessing. When countable, it refers to a specific instance or report: 'We received three evaluations from different experts.'

Common Mistakes

The teacher made an evaluation about my essay.
The teacher made an evaluation of my essay.
evaluation is followed by 'of', not 'about'.
The company did a risk evaluation exam.
The company did a risk evaluation.
'evaluation' already includes the idea of examining; adding 'exam' is redundant.

Word family

  • evaluate
    verbB2
  • evaluative
    adjectiveC1
  • evaluator
    nounC1
  • re-evaluate
    verbC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words involve looking at something closely, but they differ in scope and purpose. 'Evaluation' is the broadest: it judges quality, value, or effectiveness against set criteria. 'Assessment' is very similar but often less formal — a teacher might assess a student's progress but evaluate a programme's overall success. 'Appraisal' is restricted to formal, typically workplace or property contexts: a manager gives an annual appraisal, and a bank orders an appraisal of a house. 'Review' implies looking backward at past events or performance, often without a fixed scoring system — you review a movie or an employee's quarterly results. 'Analysis' focuses on breaking a topic into parts to understand it rather than to judge its worth. In business, you might analyse sales data (figuring out what happened) but evaluate the marketing campaign (deciding whether it was good). Choose 'evaluation' when you need to express a careful, criteria-based judgment of worth; choose 'assessment' for a more flexible judgment; 'appraisal' for formal workplace or property valuation; 'review' for a retrospective look; and 'analysis' when your goal is understanding, not judgment.

assessment ↗appraisal ↗review ↗analysis ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • carry out an evaluation
  • conduct an evaluation
  • based on the evaluation
  • undergo an evaluation
  • evaluation criteria

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Comes from French 'évaluation', built from 'é-' (out) + 'valuer' (to find the value of). The French verb traces back to Latin 'valere', meaning 'to be strong, be worthy, be of value'. English adopted the word in the mid-1700s, first in mathematics and finance before spreading to education, medicine, and business. The modern sense of 'judging quality or effectiveness by criteria' developed in the 1900s.