bookkeeping
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bookkeeping
Explanation
Bookkeeping is keeping track of a business's financial transactions. Most bookkeeping these days happens on computers rather than in actual books. The activity of keeping your own financial records and the job of doing the same thing for a company are both considered bookkeeping. Some people teach themselves basic bookkeeping and others hire experts to do it for them. The word bookkeeping comes from the sense of book that means "record" or "written document," and it has the distinction of being one of very few words in English with three consecutive double letters.
Vocabulary lists containing bookkeeping
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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.
Its officers found a lack of basic bookkeeping records and mismatched information.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
There’s not a textbook for empathy the way there is for Python or for bookkeeping.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 11, 2026
Automation had been hollowing out middle-skill work since the early 2000s, quietly eliminating the clerical roles, bookkeeping jobs and sales positions that once absorbed India's graduates.
From BBC ● Mar. 29, 2026
Their statement also stresses that they effectively opened up their entire bookkeeping system to the Premier League for the purposes of the investigation.
From BBC ● Mar. 16, 2026
“I think I’ll do better with bookkeeping than barrel staves, all right. There’s just one part of this that bothers me.”
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
Definitions 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.
