Asset

a useful and desirable thing or quality:
organizational ability is an -sset.
a single item of ownership having exchange value.
-ssets.

items of ownership convertible into cash; total resources of a person or business, as cash, notes and accounts receivable, securities, inventories, goodwill, fixtures, machinery, or real estate (opposed to ).
accounting. the items detailed on a balance sheet, especially in relation to liabilities and capital.
all property available for the payment of debts, especially of a bankrupt or insolvent firm or person.
law. property in the hands of an heir, executor, or administrator, that is sufficient to pay the debts or legacies of a deceased person.

contemporary examples

border patrol agents say that best way to watch the line is by air, but even that -sset is wanting here.
u.s. drug and immigration checkpoints take toll on border towns andrew becker, g. w. schulz june 17, 2013

the collapse in -sset values since 2007 has busted the net worth of the median family all the way back down to early 1990s levels.
two decades of prosperity: gone david frum june 10, 2012

with lehman, the -sset quality was much worse and the hole much bigger.
the man who saw the crisis coming william d. cohan november 16, 2008

the debt load is so vast that every -sset of the club—including its training ground—has been mortgaged.
manchester united: the glazer family’s bad play michael moritz august 5, 2012

to date, this ident-ty is still a political liability, and in no case has it proven an -sset to any elected or appointed official.
arab americans need political normalization hussein ibish november 11, 2012

historical examples

a reporter who could thus cater to the public greed for horrors was an -sset to the cincinnati press.
lafcadio hearn nina h. kennard

they all of them have to admit that i’m honest—that’s an -sset that n-body can dispute.
mixed faces roy norton

you would wish me to convince you that he is liability rather than an -sset.
the debatable land arthur colton

what however went first of all or rather vanished was nothing in the nature of an -sset.
chance joseph conrad

the one by the well-known author has a valuable -sset in its creator; the one by the new author has no -sset but its own merits.
skook-m chuck fables skook-m chuck (pseud for r.d. c-mming)

noun
anything valuable or useful: experience is their main -sset see also -ssets
n.

see -ssets.

a possession that can be turned into cash to cover liabilities.

note: commonly, the term denotes anything of value.

-sset source for software engineering technology