accountant
noun
Simple meaning
A reckoner, or someone who maintains financial matters for a person.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhkowntuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əˈkaʊntənt
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Someone who maintains and audits business accounts
A reckoner, or someone who maintains financial matters for a person(s).
One who renders account; one accountable.
accounting
One whose profession includes organizing, maintaining and auditing the records of another. The records are usually, but not always, financial records.
accounting
One who is skilled in, keeps, or adjusts, accounts; an officer in a public office, who has charge of the accounts.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Someone who maintains and audits business accounts
An 'accountant' is a professional who manages financial records. They often work with taxes or audit business finances, and the word is widely understood and used in American English.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where you'll really hear it
Job Interview
“She hopes to become a certified public accountant next year.”
Personal Finance Discussion
“My accountant helped me prepare my tax returns efficiently.”
Business Office
“The company hired a new accountant to manage payroll.”
Where it naturally appears
- Business/professional
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use accountant
- “My accountant helps me prepare my taxes every year.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Maintains / profession
Other combinations
Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An accountant who has passed certain examinations and met all other statutory and licensing requirements of a United States state to be certified by that state.
A British or Canadian accountant who is a member of a professional body that has a royal charter.
A specialist in the systematic recording and analysis of the costs incident to production.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- controllernoun
- accountancynoun
- administratornoun
- mbanoun
- firmnoun
- clerknoun
- auditnoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: someone who maintains and audits business accounts
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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.