assay

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The Word of the Day for September 13 is:

assay   \a-SAY\   verb
     1 : try, attempt 
     2 *a : to analyze (as an ore) for one or more specific components b : to 
judge the worth of : estimate

Example sentence: 
     A certified laboratory will assay the samples of gold and silver to 
determine their levels of purity.

Did you know? 
     Usage experts warn against confusing the verbs "assay" and "essay." Some 
confusion shouldn't be surprising, since the two words look alike and derive 
from the same root, the Middle French "essai," meaning "test" or "effort" (a 
root that in turn comes from the Late Latin "exagium," meaning "act of 
weighing"). At one time, the two terms were synonyms, sharing the meaning "try" 
or "attempt," but many modern usage commentators recommend that you 
differentiate the two words, using "essay" when you mean "to try or attempt" 
(as in "he will essay a dramatic role for the first time") and "assay" to mean 
"to test or evaluate" (as in "the blood was assayed to detect the presence of 
the antibody").