ACCOUNTABLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does accountable mean? 

• ACCOUNTABLE (adjective)
  The adjective ACCOUNTABLE has 1 sense:

1. liable to account for one's actions

  Familiarity information: ACCOUNTABLE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ACCOUNTABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Liable to account for one's actions

Context example:

he was answerable to no one

Similar:

responsible (worthy of or requiring responsibility or trust; or held accountable)

Derivation:

account (furnish a justifying analysis or explanation)

accountability (responsibility to someone or for some activity)

 Context examples 

Enhanced MAO activity maybe accountable for the prevention or regression of fibrosis, which may occur due to too much serotonin or too little MAO activity.

(Aminobenzoate Potassium, NCI Thesaurus)

He could not be accountable for his children's want of spirits, or for her want of enjoyment in his company.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

He or she is responsible for the scientific, legal, administrative, and technical aspects of the grant and accountable to the grantee for the proper conduct of the project or activity.

(Grant Principal Investigator, NCI Thesaurus)

The team discovered that there was little evidence for holding the region's fast-growing elephant population accountable for the forest loss.

(Land cover change in Botswana savannas: Don't blame the elephants, National Science Foundation)

It certainly is not the fact, said I, perplexed, that I am accountable for Steerforth's having been away from home longer than usual—if he has been: which I really don't know at this moment, unless I understand it from you.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Pray excuse me; but supposing any little inconvenience may be apprehended from the intimacy, it cannot be expected that Emma, accountable to nobody but her father, who perfectly approves the acquaintance, should put an end to it, so long as it is a source of pleasure to herself.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

After adjusting for heme-iron content in the diet, the red-meat and diabetes association was still present, suggesting that other chemicals present in red meat could be accountable for the increase in risk of diabetes.

(Eating Meat Linked to Higher Risk of Diabetes, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

But historians are not accountable for the difficulty of learning to read; and even you yourself, who do not altogether seem particularly friendly to very severe, very intense application, may perhaps be brought to acknowledge that it is very well worth-while to be tormented for two or three years of one's life, for the sake of being able to read all the rest of it.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)