Accounting

How to spell accounting

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce accounting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does accounting mean?

1. nounThe systematic recording, reporting, and analysis of financial transactions for a person or organisation.
2. verbThe act of giving a satisfactory explanation or reckoning for something, typically in the phrase 'accounting for'.

Accounting in a sentence

• noun

  She studied accounting before joining the audit firm.

• verb

  Accounting for every missing receipt took the treasurer all afternoon.

• noun

  The small business uses simple software for its accounting.

• verb

  The manager spent the meeting accounting for the budget overspend.

Where does accounting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back through the verb 'account', which English took from the Old French 'aconter', meaning 'to reckon up' or 'to render a tally'. That French verb was built on the Latin 'computare', 'to count together' or 'to calculate', formed from 'com-' (together) and 'putare' (to reckon or to prune into shape). The original idea was literally the keeping of a count, a numbered record of money owed and money paid. English added the native '-ing' ending to make the activity noun, and by the 1600s 'accounting' described the systematic recording of financial dealings. The very same Latin 'computare' also gave us 'compute' and 'computer', a useful reminder that accounting has always been about counting. The familiar spelling trap is the doubled 'c' at the start, which survives from the Latin 'ad-' assimilating to 'ac-' before the hard 'c' sound.

How the word is built

• ac- (from Latin ad-: to, toward)
• count (to reckon or calculate)
• -ing (noun/gerund suffix)