accountant

American  

[uh-koun-tnt] / əˈkaʊn tnt /

noun

accountants plural

1. a person whose profession is inspecting and auditing personal or commercial accounts and providing financial advice to the account holders.

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accountant British  

/ əˈkaʊntənt /

noun

1. a person concerned with the maintenance and audit of business accounts and the preparation of consultant reports in tax and finance

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• accountantship
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• accountants
  plural

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 ”

Compare meaning

How does accountant compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• actuary vs. accountant

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

accountant accountants

Though an accountant by trade, he began integrating into the family business and, before his father’s passing, took over the business with his brother.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026

"Every day, I wake up wondering whether the situation will de-escalate or worsen," said Mustafa Mohamed, a 39-year-old Sudanese accountant in the Gulf country.

From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026

“I go through lots of screening calls and they go nowhere,” said Norig Karakashian, an accountant in Glendale, Calif., who’s been looking for a job for the last year and a half.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

The former accountant set up their US distribution centre in a few months after a 10% global tariff rate was introduced last year.

From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026

Peter DiPaola had worked as an accountant for a vending machine company.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover

Ministers say lawyers, accountants and architects are among professionals who will benefit.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

Following staff cuts at the agency, lawyers and accountants noticed an uptick in abruptly ended audits.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 5, 2026

Manchester-based accountants AMS Accounts Group took on the books after Johnstone Carmichael, but Scottish firm MMG Chartered Accountants, which has recently merged with TC Group, now audits the party finances.

From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026

Grocery-store chain Albertsons, for example, last summer laid off some of its back-office workers and accountants in the Phoenix area and elsewhere in the U.S. and moved their jobs to the Philippines.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026

If a judge were to mandate the dissolution of the company, its factories would remain standing and its workers, accountants, managers and shareholders would continue to live—but Peugeot SA would immediately vanish.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

Related Words

• actuary
• analyst
• auditor
• bookkeeper
• clerk