account

noun

1. 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.

   “The firm failed to file its accounts on time.”

2. A bank account.

   “The money was refunded to her account.”

   “The Pueblo bank has advised that the operator opened an account at that bank with currency, and a few days later withdrew the amount.”

3. A statement in general of reasons, causes, grounds, etc., explanatory of some event; a reason of an action to be done.

   “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.”

   “Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.”

4. A reason, grounds, consideration, motive; a person's sake.

   “Don't trouble yourself on my account.”

   “on no account”

   “on every account”

   “on all accounts”

   “[…] 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. A record of events; a relation or narrative.

   “An account of a battle.”

   “A laudible account of the city of London.”

   “The study of the main body of Hittite texts was intrusted^([sic]) to the Austrian scholar Hrozny, who in 1915 published a preliminary account of his results[…]”

   “According to one published account, said to be based on information provided by foreign missionaries in Chungking, whose reaction may have been influenced by the excesses of the Boxer Rebellion just a few years earlier, Tuan-fang was killed by his own soldiers at Tzu-chou, Shensi province.”

   “In a lapidary style, Qiu Dongping clearly and forcefully describes battlefield actions with simple sentences, giving a blow-by-blow account of successive events with neither understatement nor exaggeration.”

6. An estimate or estimation; valuation; judgment.

   “To stand high in your account”

7. Importance; worth; value; esteem; judgement.

   “There is a peculiarity in Homers manner of apoſtrophizing Eumæus, and ſpeaking of him in the ſecond perſon; it is generally apply'd by that Poet only to men of account' and diſtinction, and by it the Poet, as it were, addreſſes them with reſpect; […]”

8. Authorization as a specific registered user in accessing a system.

   “Since the system outage, I've been unable to log in to my account.”

   “In these cases, the agency has to buy through another ad agency that has an account with the media vehicle in question.”

   “For example, to register an account with Hotmail, you should type www.hotmail.com on the Address bar of your browser to go to the Hotmail e-mail service WEB page.”

   “While the buyer might have to create an account with the online payment service, this account is free; the account exists only to facilitate future transactions, since the buyer's address and payment information doesn't have to be re-entered for each new transaction.”

   “Depending on the shipping options you plan to offer to your customers, you'll probably need to open shipping accounts with FedEx, UPS, and perhaps other couriers as well.”

9. (archaic)A reckoning; computation; calculation; enumeration; a record of some reckoning.

   “It seems that this severity weakened his frame, for three years syne come Martinmas he was taken ill with a fever of the bowels, and after a week's sickness he went to his account, where I trust he is accepted.”

10. (uncountable)Profit; advantage.

    “The young man soon turned his woodworking skills to some account.”

    “I removed from the Old Jewry to Fetter Lane, and from thence to Wapping, hoping to get business among the sailors; but it would not turn to account.”

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive)To provide explanation.
2. (archaic, intransitive)To provide explanation.
3. (transitive)To provide explanation.

   “The Pagan Hercules, why was he accounted a hero?”

4. (intransitive)To provide explanation.

   “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 provide explanation.

   “An officer must account with or to the treasurer for money received.”

6. (intransitive)To provide explanation.

   “We must account for the use of our opportunities.”

7. (intransitive)To provide explanation.

   “Idleness accounts for poverty.”

8. (intransitive)To provide explanation.

   “After the crash, not all passengers were accounted for.”

9. (intransitive)To provide explanation.

   “Desperately bold at last, the persecuted animals bolted above-ground—the terrier accounted for one, the keeper for another; Rawdon, from flurry and excitement, missed his rat, but on the other hand he half-murdered a ferret.”

10. (archaic, transitive)To count.

    “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.”

11. (obsolete)To count.
12. (obsolete)To count.

    “Long worke it were / Here to account the endlesse progeny / Of all the weeds that bud and blossome there [...].”

13. Used in phrasal verbs: account for, account of, account to.