trial balance
noun
Simple meaning
A statement of the balances of all nominal accounts in a double-entry ledger.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tryuhlbaluhnsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɹaɪəlˈbæləns
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
accounting
A statement of the balances of all nominal accounts in a double-entry ledger, made to test their equality. The total value of the debits should equal the total of the credits any difference indicates that an error has been made.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: (accounting) A statement of the balances of all nominal accounts in a double-entry ledger, made to test their equality. The total value of the debits should equal the total of the credits any difference indicates that an error has been made.
Used this way, trial balance is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a financial use: it has a settled meaning in accounting and business, where precision matters more than colour.
- 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
- Finance/economics
- Business/professional
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.