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account

[ uh-kount ]
/ əˈkaʊnt /
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See synonyms for: account / accounted / accounting / accounts on Thesaurus.com

noun
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
to regard; consider as: I account myself well paid.
to assign or impute (usually followed by to): the many virtues accounted to him.
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Idioms about account

Origin of account

First recorded in 1225–75; (noun) Middle English a(c)ount(e), ac(c)ompte, from Anglo-French, Old French aco(u)nte, acompte; (verb) Middle English ac(co)unten, from Old French acunter, acompter.See ac-, count1

synonym study for account

1. See narrative.

OTHER WORDS FROM account

pre·ac·count, verbsub·ac·count, nounun·ac·count·ed, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

MORE ABOUT ACCOUNT

What does account mean?

An account is a description of an event, either written or spoken, as in When Josh came home late, his parents demanded an account of where he had been.

To account means to tell given an explanation of, as you might do in telling a story of events.

An account is also a file, profile, or log associated with a business, service, or bank used to keep track of personal information and transactions. To gain access to most social media sites, you have to give the site some basic information, like your name and email address. With this information, the site creates an account for you, giving you access.

To account can mean to give an explanation of one’s actions, as in Martina needed to account for her missing homework to avoid getting a zero.

Example: According to your account of the evening, you were never near the scene of the crime.

Where does account come from?

The first records of the term account come from around the 1200s. It ultimately comes from the Old French acompter. The French term comes from the root conter, meaning “to tell” or “to count.” Account is used both to give an explanation and to count transactions.

While accounts once were mostly related to money, as with a list of a business’s transactions, now there are many other types. You can have a library account, which allows you to borrow books from the library. You can also have a loyalty account for a store, which tracks your purchases and gives you rewards for spending money with the store. Computer technology and the internet have given us even more accounts. Most people have so many accounts that they can’t account for all of them or recount them in an account. If the number of accounts in this paragraph has your head spinning, imagine how accountants feel.

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What are some other forms related to account?

What are some synonyms for account?

What are some words that share a root or word element with account

What are some words that often get used in discussing account?

How is account used in real life?

Account is a very common word, especially when discussing a person’s access to online software or platforms.

 

Try using account!

Is account used correctly in the following sentence?

If Lani can’t account for the company’s missing money, she’ll be fired from her job.

How to use account in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for account

account
/ (əˈkaʊnt) /

noun
verb
(tr) to consider or reckonhe accounts himself poor

Word Origin for account

C13: from Old French acont, from conter, compter to count 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with account

account

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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