certified public accountant
noun
Simple meaning
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.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
surtuhfydpuhblihkuhkowntuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɝtəfaɪdˈpʌblɪkəˈkaʊntənt
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
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
An accountant who has met certain legal requirements to provide certain accounting services.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: 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
Used this way, certified public accountant is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.