According

How to spell according

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce according

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does according mean?

1. prepositionAs stated, reported, or shown by a particular source (used with 'to').
2. adverbIn a way that depends on or matches the circumstances (used with 'as' or 'to').

According in a sentence

• preposition

  According to the manual, the warranty lasts two years.

• adverb

  Each employee is paid according to the hours they work.

• preposition

  The budget was approved according to the figures in the report.

• adverb

  The heating adjusts according to the room temperature.

Where does according come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin accordare, which meant to bring into agreement, built from ad- meaning 'to' and cor, cordis meaning 'heart'; the literal sense was therefore 'to bring hearts together'. This passed into Old French as acorder, and English borrowed the verb 'accord' in the 1100s with the idea of being in harmony or agreement. The present participle 'according' developed naturally from that verb, and by the late Middle Ages the phrase 'according to' had settled into its modern role of citing a source or basis ('in agreement with what is said by'). The buried 'heart' root is a useful memory aid: the single c followed by the doubled cord, plus the plain -ing ending, all sit on the steady word 'accord'. Because it grew straight out of an everyday verb, the spelling has stayed regular and unchanged for centuries.

How the word is built

• ac- (variant of ad-: to, toward)
• cord (from Latin cor, cordis: heart)
• -ing (suffix forming the participle)