account

English

Wikipedia has articles on:

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA: /ə.ˈkaʊnt/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -aʊnt
  • Hyphenation: ac‧count

Etymology 1

  • First attested around 1300. ((reckoning of moneys received and paid):)
  • (banking): First attested in 1833.
  • (narration): First attested in the 1610's.
  • From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman acunte (“account”), from Old French acont, from aconter (“to reckon”), from Latin computo (“to sum up”)

Abbreviations

Noun

Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia account (plural accounts)

  1. (accounting) A registry of pecuniary transactions; a written or printed statement of business dealings or debts and credits, and also of other things subjected to a reckoning or review
  2. (banking) A sum of money deposited at a bank and subject to withdrawal.
    to keep one's account at the bank.
  3. A statement in general of reasons, causes, grounds, etc., explanatory of some event; a reason of an action to be done.
    • 2012 January 1, Stephen Ledoux, “Behaviorism at 100”, American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 60: 
      Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.
    No satisfactory account has been given of these phenomena.
  4. A reason, grounds, consideration, motive.
    on no account
    on every account
    on all accounts
    • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Episode 16
      ...who evidently a glutton for work, it struck him, was having a quiet forty winks for all intents and purposes on his own private account while Dublin slept.
  5. (business) A business relationship involving the exchange of money and credit.
  6. A record of events; recital of transactions; a relation or narrative; a report; a description
    An account of a battle.
    • (Can we date this quote?) A laudable account of the city of London. - Howell
  7. A statement explaining one's conduct.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Give an account of thy stewardship. - Luke 16:2
  8. An estimate or estimation; valuation; judgment.
    • (Can we date this quote?) To stand high in your account - Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, III-ii
  9. Importance; worth; value; esteem; judgement.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Men of account - Alexander Pope
    • (Can we date this quote?) To turn to account - Shakespeare
  10. An authorization to use a service.
    I've opened an account with Wikipedia so that I can contribute and partake in the project.
  11. (archaic) A reckoning; computation; calculation; enumeration; a record of some reckoning.
  12. Profit; advantage.
Usage notes
  • of Account, narrative, narration, recital. These words are applied to different modes of rehearsing a series of events
  • Account turns attention not so much to the speaker as to the fact related, and more properly applies to the report of some single event, or a group of incidents taken as whole; as, an account of a battle, of a shipwreck, etc.
  • A narrative is a continuous story of connected incidents, such as one friend might tell to another; as, a narrative of the events of a siege, a narrative of one's life, etc.
  • Narration is usually the same as narrative, but is sometimes used to describe the mode of relating events; as, his powers of narration are uncommonly great.
  • Recital denotes a series of events drawn out into minute particulars, usually expressing something which peculiarly interests the feelings of the speaker; as, the recital of one's wrongs, disappointments, sufferings, etc.
Quotations
Synonyms
Derived terms
Financial terms
  • discretionary account
  • dormant account
  • drawing account
  • escrow account
  • expense account
  • final account
  • frozen account
  • general account
  • giro account
  • house account
  • insured account
  • joint account
  • managed account
  • margin account
  • merchant account
  • mixed account
  • money of account
  • nostro account
  • NOW account
  • numbered account
  • omnibus account
  • open account
  • option account
  • overdraft checking account
  • pension account
  • profit and loss account
  • reserved account
  • restricted account
  • retirement account
  • savings account
  • separate account
  • share premium account
  • suspense account
  • sweep account
  • trading account
  • transaction account
  • trust account
  • trustee account
  • undermargined account
  • undivided account
  • valuation account
  • vostro account
  • western account
  • wrap account
  • zero-balance account
Non-financial terms
  • make account: (Obsolete): to have an opinion or expectation; to reckon
  • make account of: to hold in estimation; to esteem; as, he makes small account of beauty
  • shell account
  • short account
  • take account of, or take into account: to take into consideration; to notice
  • a writ of account: (Law): a writ which the plaintiff brings demanding that the defendant shall render his just account, or show good cause to the contrary; -- called also an action of account - Cowell
  • take into account
  • theoretical account
Translations
reckoning, calculation
a registry of pecuniary transactions
a statement in general of reasons, causes, grounds, etc.
a statement of facts or occurrences
a statement and explanation or vindication
an authorization to use a service
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2

From Anglo-Norman acounter, accomptere et al., Middle French aconter, acompter, from a- + conter (“to count”). Compare count.

Verb

account (third-person singular simple present accounts, present participle accounting, simple past and past participle accounted)

  1. to provide explanation
    1. (obsolete, transitive) To present an account of; to answer for, to justify. [14th-17th c.]
    2. (intransitive, now rare) To give an account of financial transactions, money received etc. [from 14th c.]
    3. (transitive) To estimate, consider (something to be as described). [from 14th c.]
    4. (intransitive) To consider that. [from 14th c.]
      • 1611, Bible, Authorized (King James) Version, Hebrews XI.19:
        Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
    5. (intransitive) To give a satisfactory evaluation for financial transactions, money received etc. [from 15th c.]
      An officer must account with or to the treasurer for money received.
    6. (intransitive) To give a satisfactory evaluation for (one's actions, behaviour etc.); to answer for. [from 16th c.]
      We must account for the use of our opportunities.
    7. (intransitive) To give a satisfactory reason for; to explain. [from 16th c.]
      Idleness accounts for poverty.
    8. (intransitive) To establish the location for someone. [from 19th c.]
      After the crash, not all passengers were accounted for.
    9. (intransitive) To cause the death, capture, or destruction of someone or something (+ for). [from 19th c.]
  2. to count
    1. (transitive, now rare) To calculate, work out (especially with periods of time). [from 14th c.]
      • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica:
        neither the motion of the Moon, whereby moneths are computed; nor of the Sun, whereby years are accounted, consisteth of whole numbers, but admits of fractions, and broken parts, as we have already declared concerning the Moon.
    2. (obsolete) To count (up), enumerate. [14th-17th c.]
    3. (obsolete) To recount, relate (a narrative etc.). [14th-16th c.]
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.6:
        Long worke it were / Here to account the endlesse progeny / Of all the weeds that bud and blossome there [...].
Derived terms
terms derived from account (verb)
Translations
(obsolete) to reckon
credit (to) — see credit
to estimate, to deem
account for — see account for
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
Related terms

Statistics

External links

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowing from English account.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɑˈkɑʊnt/

Noun

account n (plural accounts, diminutive accountje)

  1. a subscription to an electronic service
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Italian

Etymology

Borrowing from English account.

Noun

account m (invariable)

  1. (computing) account
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Last modified on 19 May 2013, at 16:06