diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 16142132ac..7e70205ce7 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -457,7 +457,6 @@ set_property(DIRECTORY
 	PROPERTY COMPILE_DEFINITIONS
 		"G_DISABLE_DEPRECATED"
 		"G_DISABLE_SINGLE_INCLUDES"
-		$<$<OR:$<NOT:$<BOOL:${ENABLE_ASSERT}>>,$<CONFIG:Release>>:WS_DISABLE_ASSERT>
 		$<$<OR:$<NOT:$<BOOL:${ENABLE_DEBUG}>>,$<CONFIG:Release>>:WS_DISABLE_DEBUG>
 		$<$<OR:$<BOOL:${ENABLE_DEBUG_MBS}>,$<CONFIG:Debug>>:WS_DEBUG_UTF_8>
 )
diff --git a/CMakeOptions.txt b/CMakeOptions.txt
index daa0356c95..a31187c1f3 100644
--- a/CMakeOptions.txt
+++ b/CMakeOptions.txt
@@ -53,7 +53,6 @@ option(BUILD_fuzzshark     "Build fuzzshark" OFF)
 
 option(ENABLE_WERROR     "Treat warnings as errors" ON)
 option(ENABLE_DEBUG      "Enable debug code" ON)
-option(ENABLE_ASSERT     "Enable assertions" ON)
 option(ENABLE_DEBUG_MBS  "Enable extra debug checks for detecting invalid multibyte (UTF-8) strings" OFF)
 option(ENABLE_DEBUG_A2W  "Enable line directive from .cnf file" OFF)
 
diff --git a/doc/README.developer b/doc/README.developer
index d9281c9f8e..317dfbaaca 100644
--- a/doc/README.developer
+++ b/doc/README.developer
@@ -569,8 +569,8 @@ used for that purpose.
 
 Use assertions to catch logic errors in your program. A failed assertion
 indicates a bug in the code. Use ws_assert() instead of g_assert() to
-test a logic condition. Note that ws_assert() will be removed with
-WS_DISABLE_ASSERT. Therefore assertions should not have any side-effects,
+test a logic condition. Note that ws_assert() can be removed at compile
+time. Therefore assertions should not have any side-effects,
 otherwise the program may behave inconsistently.
 
 Use ws_assert_not_reached() instead of g_assert_not_reached() for
diff --git a/ui/version_info.c b/ui/version_info.c
index d5a8b2b38e..6ee5d03170 100644
--- a/ui/version_info.c
+++ b/ui/version_info.c
@@ -213,12 +213,6 @@ get_compiled_version_info(gather_feature_func gather_compile)
 	g_string_append(str, ", debug build (");
 #endif
 
-#ifdef WS_DISABLE_ASSERT
-	g_string_append(str, "-assert");
-#else
-	g_string_append(str, "+assert");
-#endif
-
 #ifdef WS_DEBUG_UTF_8
 	g_string_append(str, " +utf8");
 #else
diff --git a/wsutil/wmem/wmem-int.h b/wsutil/wmem/wmem-int.h
index c4b5d1c94b..4cc14106ba 100644
--- a/wsutil/wmem/wmem-int.h
+++ b/wsutil/wmem/wmem-int.h
@@ -15,11 +15,11 @@
 
 #include <glib.h>
 
-#ifdef WS_DISABLE_ASSERT
+#ifdef WS_DISABLE_DEBUG
 #define ASSERT(...)     (void)0
 #else
 #define ASSERT(...)     g_assert(__VA_ARGS__)
-#endif /* WS_DISABLE_ASSERT */
+#endif /* WS_DISABLE_DEBUG */
 
 #endif /* __WMEM_INT_H__ */
 
diff --git a/wsutil/ws_assert.h b/wsutil/ws_assert.h
index 4d6531c735..3b394e0616 100644
--- a/wsutil/ws_assert.h
+++ b/wsutil/ws_assert.h
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 #include <string.h>
 #include <wsutil/wslog.h>
 
-#ifdef WS_DISABLE_ASSERT
+#ifdef WS_DISABLE_DEBUG
 #define _ASSERT_ENABLED false
 #else
 #define _ASSERT_ENABLED true
@@ -27,9 +27,9 @@ extern "C" {
 #endif /* __cplusplus */
 
 /*
- * We don't want to execute the expression with WS_DISABLE_ASSERT because
+ * We don't want to execute the expression with WS_DISABLE_DEBUG because
  * it might be time and space costly and the goal here is to optimize for
- * WS_DISABLE_ASSERT. However removing it completely is not good enough
+ * WS_DISABLE_DEBUG. However removing it completely is not good enough
  * because it might generate many unused variable warnings. So we use
  * if (false) and let the compiler optimize away the dead execution branch.
  */
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ extern "C" {
         } while (0)
 
 /*
- * ws_abort_if_fail() is not conditional on WS_DISABLE_ASSERT.
+ * ws_abort_if_fail() is not conditional on WS_DISABLE_DEBUG.
  * Usually used to appease a static analyzer.
  */
 #define ws_abort_if_fail(expr) \
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ extern "C" {
 
 /*
  * ws_assert() cannot produce side effects, otherwise code will
- * behave differently because of WS_DISABLE_ASSERT, and probably introduce
+ * behave differently because of WS_DISABLE_DEBUG, and probably introduce
  * some difficult to track bugs.
  */
 #define ws_assert(expr) \
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ extern "C" {
         } while (0)
 
 /*
- * We don't want to disable ws_assert_not_reached() with WS_DISABLE_ASSERT.
+ * We don't want to disable ws_assert_not_reached() with WS_DISABLE_DEBUG.
  * That would blast compiler warnings everywhere for no benefit, not
  * even a miniscule performance gain. Reaching this function is always
  * a programming error and will unconditionally abort execution.
diff --git a/wsutil/wslog.c b/wsutil/wslog.c
index 7061360f96..91adbb0db7 100644
--- a/wsutil/wslog.c
+++ b/wsutil/wslog.c
@@ -10,18 +10,14 @@
 
 #include "config.h"
 
-/* Because ws_assert() dependes on ws_error() we do not use it
- * here and fall back on assert() instead. */
-#if defined(WS_DISABLE_ASSERT) && !defined(NDEBUG)
-#define NDEBUG
-#endif
-
 #include "wslog.h"
 
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <time.h>
+/* Because ws_assert() dependes on ws_error() we do not use it
+ * here and fall back on assert() instead. */
 #include <assert.h>
 #ifdef HAVE_UNISTD_H
 #include <unistd.h>
@@ -40,12 +36,7 @@
 #include "console_win32.h"
 #endif
 
-
-#ifndef WS_DISABLE_ASSERT
 #define ASSERT(expr)    assert(expr)
-#else
-#define ASSERT(expr)    (void)(expr);
-#endif
 
 /* Runtime log level. */
 #define ENV_VAR_LEVEL       "WIRESHARK_LOG_LEVEL"