account

uh-KOWNT/əˈkaʊnt/

Pluralaccounts

Verbaccounts, accounting, accounted

19 meanings of account

Practice

1
user loginnouncountable
Permission to use a system as a particular registered user, usually through a username and password.
She created an account to access the company's internal portal.
His account was suspended after he violated the platform's rules.
UsageYou create or open an account, log in to it, and have it with a company or website.
Similarmembership
Note
Computing gave the old ledger a login. Such an account may hold no money at all. As Michael Miller wrote in 2006, it exists so that details need not be re-entered for future transactions.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Michael Miller published the cited discussion in 2006; the first release was September 2006. pearson.de
Miller explains that stored personal details save users from entering those details again when making purchases. ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com
2
banknouncountable
An arrangement with a bank for holding money, allowing deposits, withdrawals, and transfers.
He transferred his paycheck into a joint account with his wife.
The bank froze her account after detecting suspicious activity.
UsageYou open an account at or with a bank and pay money into it. A shared one is a joint account.
Note
Where the ledger meaning is the record, this one is the arrangement itself. The Journal of the American Bankers Association in 1918 describes an operator who opened an account with currency and withdrew the amount a few days later.
3
nouncountable
A spoken or written report or description of events, or a statement explaining the reasons and causes behind them.
The survivor's account of the earthquake was published in the newspaper.
Historians compared several accounts before reconstructing the battle.
UsageYou give an account of something: her account of the earthquake. By all accounts means according to what people say.
Similarreport, description, story, narrative, version
4
money recordnouncountable
A written or printed record of money transactions, showing debts, credits, and other dealings subject to review.
The auditor examined the company's accounts for the past fiscal year.
The shop owner kept a careful account of every sale and expense.
UsageA firm's accounts, in the plural, are its whole financial records. You keep an account of spending.
Similarbooks, records, ledger
5
explain whyverbintransitive
To give a satisfactory reason for something; to explain why an event occurred.
Engineers could not account for the sudden drop in pressure.
Scientists struggled to account for the unexpected results.
UsageUsed with for: account for a change, a result, or where you were.
Similarexplain
Note
The explanation can come from a cause as well as from a person: idleness accounts for poverty. Research prose relies on this pattern, as in Westwood, Mandy and Brewer's 2025 work on atypical eating in autistic and non-autistic groups. With a person as subject it means giving reasons, as when a witness accounts for her whereabouts.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
Westwood, Mandy and Brewer authored the referenced research. link.springer.com
The work was first published in 2025. link.springer.com
The research investigated atypical eating in autistic and non-autistic groups. link.springer.com
The paper uses account for with explanatory factors as its subject. link.springer.com
6
reasonnoununcountable
A reason, ground, or motive for something; also, a person's sake or behalf.
The meeting was postponed on account of the bad weather.
She refused to change her plans on his account.
UsageMostly in phrases with on: on account of (because of), on my account (for my sake), on no account (not ever).
7
verbintransitive
To give a satisfactory justification for one's actions or conduct; to answer for what one has done.
Officials were called before the committee to account for their handling of the crisis.
He knew he would eventually have to account for his role in the scandal.
UsageUsed with for, often after have to or be called to: account for your actions.
Similaranswer, justify, explain
8
nouncountable
A client that a company or agency serves, chiefly in advertising or sales, together with the business it handles for that client.
After a six-month pitch, the firm landed the airline's account.
Each sales rep manages about forty accounts across the Midwest.
Similarclient, customer
9
verbintransitive
To make up a certain amount, part, or proportion of a larger whole, used in the construction account for.
Women account for roughly sixty percent of students at the university.
Tourism accounted for a third of the island's income last year.
Similarconstitute, represent, comprise
Note
A sentence in this sense pairs a part with its share of a whole: online orders account for nearly half of the store's sales. The object is the share itself, an amount, a fraction or a percentage. The same two words also mean to explain (accounting for a delay), and a quick test separates them: if "make up" fits, it is this sense; if "explain" fits, it is the other.

Less common meanings

10
locateverbintransitive
To confirm where a particular person is, especially after an emergency or disruption.
Emergency crews could not account for two of the hikers until midday.
By dawn, the ship's officers had accounted for every crew member.
UsageOften passive: everyone is accounted for. Missing people are unaccounted for.
Similarlocate
Note
The words confirm that each person's whereabouts is known, and the phrase is usually framed with all, every or not all. It is a statement about the whole group as much as about any one person.
11
nounarchaic
A reckoning or calculation, or a written record of one.
It seems that this severity weakened his frame, for three years syne come Martinmas he was taken ill with a fever of the bowels, and after a week's sickness he went to his account, where I trust he is accepted.
1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
Note
The archaic reckoning has a solemn use as well: to go to one's account is to die and face the final reckoning. John Buchan's The Outgoing of the Tide (1902) says of a man that "he went to his account, where I trust he is accepted." This is judgment, not arithmetic.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
The Outgoing of the Tide is by John Buchan and was first published in 1902. gutenberg.net.au
The quoted words occur in the story, in the narrator's account of a man's death. en.wikisource.org
Going to one's account refers here to death and divine judgment. en.wikisource.org
12
verbintransitive
To give a satisfactory explanation or formal statement of how money or financial transactions have been handled.
Department heads must account for their spending at the annual review.
The cashier carefully accounted for the day's takings before closing up.
UsageYou account to a person for money: managers account to the board for their spending.
Similarexplain
13
importancenoununcountable
Importance, worth, value, or esteem attributed to someone or something.
A man of great account in the city, he was welcomed everywhere.
Such trifles were of no account to her.
UsageMostly in phrases with of: a man of great account, trifles of no account.
Similarimportance, consequence, note, significance, worth
Note
A note to Book XIV of Pope's translation of The Odyssey (1725 to 1726) pairs it with distinction, speaking of "men of account and distinction." The phrase works in both directions. Of great account praises, while of no account dismisses.
14
verbtransitive
Formal: to regard or consider someone or something to be as described; to hold the opinion that something is so.
Historians account the treaty a turning point in the war.
He accounted the risk too great to justify the venture.
UsageThe description can follow the object directly: they accounted him a hero. The passive is common: he was accounted a hero.
Similarconsider, deem, reckon, judge
Note
Thomas Carlyle's Past and Present (1843) frames the pattern as a question: "The Pagan Hercules, why was he accounted a hero?"
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Thomas Carlyle wrote Past and Present. gutenberg.org
Past and Present was first published in 1843. searcharchives.bl.uk
Past and Present contains the quoted question with this exact wording. gutenberg.org
15
killverbintransitive
To bring about the death, capture, or destruction of a person or thing.
The marksman accounted for three of the raiders before dawn.
A good barn cat can account for several mice in a single week.
UsageUsed with for: the cat accounted for three mice.
Similarkill, dispatch, destroy
Note
Sporting English gives this one its grim understatement. Thackeray's Vanity Fair (1848) describes a rat hunt in which "the terrier accounted for one, the keeper for another." The verb keeps its for and records a tally settled, leaving the killing itself unspoken. Its subject can be an animal as easily as a person.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
William Makepeace Thackeray wrote Vanity Fair. gutenberg.org
The first book edition of Vanity Fair dates to 1848. commons.wikimedia.org
Vanity Fair describes a rat hunt. gutenberg.org
The quoted wording occurs in the narration of that hunt. gutenberg.org
16
advantagenoununcountable
Profit or advantage, especially a benefit gained from some situation or effort.
She turned the delay to good account, finishing her book while she waited.
He put his talents to good account and built a thriving business.
UsageMostly in turn or put something to good account, with no article.
Similaruse, advantage, effect, profit
Note
In Swift's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World (1726), business at Wapping "would not turn to account."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
Jonathan Swift wrote Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. en.wikipedia.org
The book was first published in 1726. en.wikipedia.org
The 1726 volume's original publication statement bears that year. digital.ub.uni-paderborn.de
The quotation describes Gulliver's unsuccessful attempt to obtain business at Wapping. gutenberg.org
17
verbobsolete
Old use: to count, reckon, or calculate a number or quantity, such as an interval of time.
18
verbobsolete
To recount or relate a narrative, telling a story or sequence of events.
Note
Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590) shows why counting and telling once shared a verb: "Long worke it were / Here to account the endlesse progeny / Of all the weeds." To list the weeds and to tell of them are the same act. That use is obsolete, and recount now does the work.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene. en.wikisource.org
The Faerie Queene, including Book III containing this passage, was first published in 1590. en.wikisource.org
The quoted words occur in the narrator's description in Book III, Canto VI. en.wikisource.org
Account historically meant both counting or enumerating and recounting or relating. en.wiktionary.org
19
noundated
An estimate or estimation; a valuation or considered judgment of something.
To stand high in your account
1623, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of account apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–4, 6, 8–9, 11, 13, 16

Latin computō ("to sum up") gave Old French aconter ("to reckon") and its noun aconte. The word then passed through Anglo-Norman acunte into Middle English as acounte.

Meanings 5, 7, 10, 12, 14–15, 17–18

It comes from Old French acounter (also accomptere and similar forms), formed from a- plus conter, meaning "to count."

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

Account comes from Old French acounter, with accomptere and other variant forms. en.wiktionary.org
The French verb was formed from a- plus conter. fr.wiktionary.org
Old French conter means "to count." en.wiktionary.org