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accountable

adjective

Simple meaning

Obliged, when called upon, to answer.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

uhkowntuhbuhl

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IPA pronunciation (US)

əˈkaʊntəbəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Obliged, when called upon, to answer (for one's deeds); answerable.

  2. Obliged to keep accurate records (of property or funds).

  3. Liable to be called on to render an account.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Obliged, when called upon, to answer (for one's deeds); answerable.

Used this way, accountable is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: obliged or when called upon

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.