account

American  

[uh-kount] / əˈkaʊnt /

noun

• accounts
  plural

1. an oral or written description of particular events or situations; narrative.

   an account of the meetings;

   an account of the trip.

   Synonyms:

   chronicle, report

2. an explanatory statement of conduct, as to a superior.

   Synonyms:

   justification

3. a statement of reasons, causes, etc., explaining some event.

4. reason; basis.

   On this account I'm refusing your offer.

5. importance; worth; value; consequence.

   things of no account.

   Synonyms:

   significance, import

6. estimation; judgment.

   In his account it was an excellent piece of work.

   Synonyms:

   consideration

7. an amount of money deposited with a bank, as in a checking or savings account.

   My account is now with Third National.

8. Also called charge account.  an accommodation or service extended by a business to a customer or client permitting the charging of goods or services, the returning for credit of unsatisfactory merchandise, etc..

   Do you have an account at this store?

   My account with the restaurant is past due.

9. a statement of financial transactions.

10. Bookkeeping.

    1. a formal record of the debits and credits relating to the person, business, etc., named at the head of the ledger account.

    2. a balance of a specified period's receipts and expenditures.

11. Commerce.

    1. a business relation in which credit is used.

    2. any customer or client, especially one carried on a regular credit basis.

    3. Also called advertising account.  the business assigned to an advertising agency by a client.

       The toothpaste account was awarded to a new agency last year.

12. Digital Technology. an electronic identity, as a username and its associated data, assigned to an individual or group for secure, personalized access to a website, network, digital service, etc.: Your email account has been hacked!

    I don’t access my work account from my home computer.

    Your email account has been hacked!

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verb (used without object)

• accounts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• accounted,
  past participle,  past
• accounting
  present participle

1. to give an explanation (usually followed byfor ).

   to account for the accident.

2. to answer concerning one's conduct, duties, etc. (usually followed byfor ).

   to account for the missing documents.

3. to provide a report on money received, kept, and spent.

4. to cause (usually followed byfor ).

   The humidity accounts for our discomfort.

   His reckless driving accounted for the accident.

verb (used with object)

• accounts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• accounted,
  past participle,  past
• accounting
  present participle

1. to regard; consider as.

   I account myself well paid.

2. to assign or impute (usually followed byto ).

   the many virtues accounted to him.

idioms

1. on no account, under no circumstances; absolutely not.

   On no account should you buy that painting without having it appraised.

2. give a good / bad account of, to do something or conduct oneself in a good (bad, etc.) manner.

   She gave a good account of herself in the tennis tournament.

3. take account of, Also take into account.

   1. to make allowance for; consider.

      One must take account of the difficult circumstances. Taking account of the high overhead, the price is not excessive.

   2. to notice or observe.

4. on account, as an installment or a partial payment.

   I can't pay the balance, but here's $10 on account.

5. on all accounts, in any case; under any circumstances. Also at all accounts.

6. hold to account, to hold responsible; hold accountable or culpable.

   If any of the silver is missing, I'm going to hold you to account.

7. on account of,

   1. by reason of; because of.

   2. for the sake of.

      She saw it through on account of me.

8. call to account,

   1. to hold accountable; blame; reprimand.

      Call them to account for having endangered their lives.

   2. ask for an explanation of.

9. turn to account, to derive profit or use from; turn to advantage.

   She has turned her misfortunes to account.

account British  

/ əˈkaʊnt /

noun

1. a verbal or written report, description, or narration of some occurrence, event, etc

2. an explanation of conduct, esp one made to someone in authority

3. ground; basis; consideration (often in the phrases on this ( that, every, no, etc) account , on account of )

4. importance, consequence, or value

   of little account

5. assessment; judgment

6. profit or advantage

   to turn an idea to account

7. part or behalf (only in the phrase on one's or someone's account )

8. finance

   1. a business relationship between a bank, department store, stockbroker, etc, and a depositor, customer, or client permitting the latter certain banking or credit services

   2. the sum of money deposited at a bank

   3. the amount of credit available to the holder of an account

   4. a record of these

9. a statement of monetary transactions with the resulting balance

10. (on the London Stock Exchange) the period, ordinarily of a fortnight's duration, in which transactions formerly took place and at the end of which settlements were made

11. accounting a chronological list of debits and credits relating to a specified asset, liability, expense, or income of a business and forming part of the ledger

12. 1. a regular client or customer, esp a firm that purchases commodities on credit

    2. an area of business assigned to another

       they transferred their publicity account to a new agent

13. 1. to insist on explanation

    2. to rebuke; reprimand

    3. to hold responsible

14. to perform badly

    he gave a bad account of himself in the examination

15. to perform well

16. 1. on credit

    2. Also: to account.  as partial payment

17. (preposition) because of; by reason of

18. to take into consideration; allow for

19. 1. to pay or receive a balance due

    2. to get revenge on (someone)

20. See bank account credit account

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verb

1. (tr) to consider or reckon

   he accounts himself poor

account More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing account

• all present and accounted for
• by all accounts
• call to account
• give a good account
• no accounting for tastes
• on account of
• on no account
• on one's own account
• take account of
• take into account
• turn to good account

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Usage

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.

Synonym Usage

See narrative.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subaccount
  noun
• preaccount
  verb
• unaccounted
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• accounts
  plural

Participles

• accounting
  present
• accounted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• account
  simple
• accounts
  simple
• have accounted
  perfect
• has accounted
  perfect
• am accounting
  progressive
• are accounting
  progressive
• is accounting
  progressive
• have been accounting
  perfect progressive
• has been accounting
  perfect progressive

Past

• accounted
  simple
• had accounted
  perfect
• was accounting
  progressive
• were accounting
  progressive
• had been accounting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will account
  simple
• will have accounted
  perfect
• will be accounting
  progressive
• will have been accounting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

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-, count ¹

Explanation

An account can be many things — such as a story, like if you give a friend an account of what happened at the party she missed. It can also be a business arrangement, like a bank account or an email account. Account is one of those seemingly simple words that have a mass of different meanings. An account can be a narrative or story — a biography, for example, is an account of someone's life. Account can also mean an explanation of something, as in the phrase, "How do you account for that?" An account is also a handy arrangement whereby a store agrees to provide you goods on credit, but then you might have to account for all that debt.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

account accounts accounted accounting

Over dinner with her parents in Milan, she checked the account for the first time in a few days.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

The park service said it was working with Arizona authorities to evacuate people and account for missing individuals.

From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026

Social Security adjusts your benefit at FRA to account for those months during which your benefits were withheld because of excess earnings.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026

Kalshi said Santos's case was referred to federal authorities earlier this summer after internal systems flagged suspicious behaviour linked to his account.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

He named the small boat the Wreck-less on account of it not suffering a big hole that would cause it to sink.

From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el

The bill would compensate community solar developers and customers at a rate that advocates say more accurately accounts for the savings solar brings to the grid, especially on hot days when the system is stressed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026

Victoria Beckham Holdings Ltd, which is led by the former Spice Girl as creative director, made an operating profit of £7.3m in 2025, accounts show, after years of losses.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

Increasingly, parents are draining money from retirement accounts and home equity to pay for their children’s educations.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026

Most accounts of the American Revolution skate right over the ill-fated invasion of Quebec in 1775, months before the Declaration of Independence.

From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026

His pants and jacket were wrinkled, but he didn’t look as derelict as some of the press accounts had indicated.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

That was true even when we accounted for factors like differences in the amount of time participants spent indoors, with either filter, as well as how stressful they found the test.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026

Mr. Kidd contends that the dons’ wartime service accounted for their worldly cachet and influence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

“We found the harm was 100 to 400 times what was being accounted for by prevalence.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

Digital downloads accounted for nearly 82 percent of game sales on the PS4 and PS5 at the start of 2026, Sony said in late July.

From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026

I trusted my father, but wondered how his explanation accounted for Rambo and Chuck Norris, who came to the trading center that summer and created a lot of controversy.

From "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba

Treasurys become relatively less attractive to foreign investors, particularly after accounting for currency-hedging costs, putting additional upward pressure on U.S. yields.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026

Authorities are also pursuing a case that focuses on an employee at KPMG, the global accounting and consulting firm, people familiar with that investigation said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

Christian Wood of accounting firm RSM said some clients hadn’t mentioned until recently that they invested deferred capital gains into Opportunity Zones.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

"This was a good opportunity to go back and go over all of our assumptions - it turns out, yes, we do understand this stuff and we're accounting for it in our cosmology measurement."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 29, 2026

He gave a scrupulous accounting to his brother and very soon plunged back into the routine of cockfights.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Related Words

• detail
• explanation
• history
• narrative
• report
• story
• tale
• version