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In on-site measurement, as the transformer’s structure is often unknown, the application of frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS) is greatly limited in moisture assessment of transformer. This paper proposes a moisture assessment method for oil-immersed paper based on the dynamic characteristic frequency even for an unknown transformer structure. FDS tests are performed on the oil-paper insulation, corresponding oil-immersed paper, and mineral oil under different moisture conditions. The moisture criterion of oil-immersed paper and the influence of the structural parameters on the calculated frequency spectroscopy at different frequencies are discussed. It is concluded that the moisture criterion’s effectiveness, which indicates the sensitivity of assessed moisture content to the error of the tan $\delta $ , changes at different frequencies. Moreover, there are some frequencies at which tan $\delta $ is not influenced by structural parameters and is close to the measured value, which are regarded as “characteristic frequencies.” Based on the characteristic frequency, the moisture content of oil-immersed paper is assessed according to the frequency spectroscopy of oil-paper insulation without the structural parameters. The result shows that the assessing frequency changes under different moisture conditions, and the error of the assessed moisture content is less than 0.1%.