accountant
Americannoun
-
accountants
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of accountant
First recorded in 1425–75; account + -ant; replacing late Middle English accomptant, from Middle French, Old French acuntant, present participle of acunter “to account ”
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How does accountant compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
An accountant is a person whose job involves keeping financial records for a business. To be a great accountant, you've got to be good at math. When a company hires an accountant, it turns over the management of its accounts to that person, who is responsible for keeping track of spending, income, and any other financial information. An accountant is also held accountable for the accuracy of a company's books, and usually has to be officially certified before working in the field. The word comes from account, by way of the Old French aconter, "to count."
Vocabulary lists containing accountant
Tax Day Words
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"Growing Together" and "When I Grow Up"
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Exemptions, Deductions, and Loopholes: Tax Day Vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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"The price of gas driving up there is outrageous," said Barber, a steelworker of 22 years who later became an accountant after losing her job.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
Kelly Birkett, an accountant from Redditch, works from home.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
Torres, an accountant who was working for a small brewery, didn’t qualify.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
It’s bad now because I’ve been spending money on it and my accountant was like “Hey, you’re spending a lot of money on a video game.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
All she’d have to do is talk half a minute with my accountant to know there’s nothing to interest her.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
"I was once in a room of accountants, and one of them stood up and said, 'My clients come to me for the personal touch, the human process'," he remembers.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
Upon protest, Warner Bros. reversed course and sold the movie, which did little to allay concerns that its favorite creatives are accountants.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
The first is whether cloud companies start reporting a separate lifespan for these chips, which would mean their accountants concluded the hardware is genuinely different.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
In fact, the American public includes bankers, farmers, workers, traders, builders and accountants, who together spend billions of hours interacting with the government through filling out forms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
Whatever money she had left was being eaten up by lawyers and accountants.
From "Small Steps" by Louis Sachar
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
