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accountable

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

11 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "accountable", 11-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "accountable" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "accountable" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

accountable is anEnglishadj. It means: Obliged, when called upon, to answer (for one’s deeds); answerable. Pronounced /əˈkaʊntəbl̩/. It ranks #8,230 in English word frequency.

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Key facts for accountable
PropertyValue
Headwordaccountable
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdj
IPA/əˈkaʊntəbl̩/
Letters11
Frequency rank#8,230
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of accountable in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for accountable is 11 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈkaʊntəbl̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,230 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 15 documented wrong-spelling variants for accountable, with forms such as "acconutable", "accounatble", and "accounntable". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From account + -able. First attested around 1400. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is accountable, spelled A-C-C-O-U-N-T-A-B-L-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Obliged, when called upon, to answer (for one’s deeds); answerable.
  2. 2
    Obliged to keep accurate records (of property or funds).
  3. 3
    Liable to be called on to render an account.
  4. 4
    Capable of being accounted for; explicable; explainable.

Etymology

From account + -able. First attested around 1400.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: acconutable,accounatble,accounntable,accountabble,accountabel,accountablle,accountalbe,accountbale,accountible,accounttable,accoutnable,accuontable,acocuntable,acountable,cacountable

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for accountable

Misspelling Variants of "accountable"

acconutable11accounatble11accounntable12accountabble12accountabel11accountablle12accountalbe11accountbale11
Misspelling Variants of "accountable"

Frequency rank: #8,230 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "accountable"?
"accountable" is spelled A-C-C-O-U-N-T-A-B-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is /əˈkaʊntəbl̩/.
What does "accountable" mean?
As an adj, "accountable" means: Obliged, when called upon, to answer (for one’s deeds); answerable.
What are common misspellings of "accountable"?
Common misspellings include "acconutable", "accounatble", "accounntable", "accountabble", "accountabel". The correct spelling is "accountable".
How do you pronounce "accountable"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "accountable" is /əˈkaʊntəbl̩/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "accountable"?
From account + -able. First attested around 1400. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.