Account: A Bank Balance, a Written Report, and an Explanation You Owe
An account is a record of money held or owed, a description of events, and — as a verb — the act of explaining or answering for something.
Account covers three related ideas: a record of money, a telling of what happened, and the duty to explain yourself. All three come from the same old sense of counting things up.
- A financial record. *She opened an account at the local bank.*
- A user profile online. *Log in to your account.*
- A description of events. *His account of the accident differed from hers.*
- A customer relationship in business. *He manages the firm's biggest accounts.*
- To explain or answer for (verb). *You will have to account for the missing hours.*
- To make up a proportion of. *Exports account for a third of sales.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | account | Check your account balance. |
| Plural | accounts | The accounts are audited yearly. |
| Verb | account for | Rain accounts for the delay. |
| Person | accountant | She trained as an accountant. |
| Adjective | accountable | Ministers are accountable to parliament. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Transfer the money to my current account.The banking sense.
- By all accounts, the meeting went badly.According to what everyone says.
- Take the weather into account before you set off.Consider it when deciding.
- On no account should you open that door.Emphatic: under no circumstances.
- Two people are still unaccounted for.Not yet found or explained.
Set phrases worth knowing
- on account of — because of
- take into account — allow for
- by all accounts — according to everyone
- settle an account — pay what is owed, or get revenge
- give a good account of yourself — perform well, even in defeat
From Old French *aconter*, to count or reckon up, from Latin *computare*. The money sense and the story sense were never separate: to give an account was always to render a reckoning, whether in coins or in words.
What does account for mean?
Two things: to explain something (*account for the delay*) and to make up a share of something (*sales account for 40 per cent of revenue*).
Is it on account of or because of?
Both are correct. *Because of* is neutral and shorter; *on account of* is slightly more formal and common in speech in some regions.