account for (someone or something)

phrasal verb

accounted for (someone or something); accounting for (someone or something); accounts for (someone or something)

1

: to show what happened to (someone or something) : know where (something or someone) is

We have to account for the time we spend on each activity.

The government couldn't account for millions of dollars of the taxpayers' money.

Is everyone accounted for?

2

: to destroy or kill (someone or something)

Enemy fighters have accounted for most of our bombers, Sir.

3

chiefly British : to defeat or beat (someone or something)

We accounted for the challengers 3–2.

Examples of account for (someone or something) in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The agency said that rip currents account for more than 80 percent of rescues performed by surf beach lifeguards. —Joe Edwards, MSNBC Newsweek, 14 Aug. 2025

Rosebank can’t account for other natural changes that have occurred over time either. —Chris Perugini, Forbes.com, 13 Aug. 2025

Those two losses now account for nearly half of a $125 million reduction in revenues that HHC is forecasting for 2026. —Jordan Smith, IndyStar, 12 Aug. 2025

The expectation was that the service would need the rest of the week to account for the 800 troops and mobilize them before deploying them next week. —Luis Martinez, ABC News, 12 Aug. 2025