English

Alternative forms

(one who handles financial records): acc.

Noun

accountant ‎(plural accountants)

1. One who renders account; one accountable.
2. A reckoner, or someone who maintains financial matters for a person(s).
3. (accounting) One who is skilled in, keeps, or adjusts, accounts; an officer in a public office, who has charge of the accounts.
4. (accounting) One whose profession includes organizing, maintaining and auditing the records of another. The records are usually, but not always, financial records.

Quotations

• 1900, Francis William Pixley, Accountancy — constructive and recording accountancy (Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd, London).^Archive.org, volume 1, page 4:

  The word Accountant is derived from the French word compter, which took its origin from the Latin word computare. The word was formerly written in English as "accomptant", but in process of time the word, which was always pronounced by dropping the "p", became gradually changed both in pronunciation and in orthography to its present form.

Derived terms

• accountant general
• chartered accountant
• Certified National Accountant
• management accountant

Related terms

• account

Translations

Etymology 2

• First attested in the early 15th century.

Adjective

accountant ‎(comparative more accountant, superlative most accountant)

1. (obsolete) Accountable.

Usage notes

• (adjective): Followed by the word to.