on account of

prep

"on-account-of" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“on account of” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a preposition. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - On behalf of the (monetary) account of; (idiomatic, originally figurative) for the sake of.

Corpus desk

Index EN-on-account-of · on account of · English

on account of · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "O" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for on account of
PropertyValue
Headwordon account of
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechPreposition
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “on account of” in English

on account ofsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

on account of is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as apreposition. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for on account of in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is on account of, spelled O-N- -A-C-C-O-U-N-T- -O-F.

Definition

  1. 1
    On behalf of the (monetary) account of; (idiomatic, originally figurative) for the sake of.
  2. 2
    Because of, due to, owing to.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how on account of appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. […] and His Imperial Majesty further agrees to pay to the British Government the sum of Three Millions of dollars, on account of debts due to British subjects by some of the said Hong merchants (or Cohong), who have become insolvent, and who owe very large sums of money to subjects of Her Britannic Majesty.
  2. The rebuilding of damaged stations is proceeding slowly, on account of the shortage of building materials and the pressing needs of housing, but steady progress is being made.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "on account of"?
"on account of" is spelled O-N- -A-C-C-O-U-N-T- -O-F.
What does "on account of" mean?
As a preposition, "on account of" means: On behalf of the (monetary) account of; (idiomatic, originally figurative) for the sake of.
What language does "on account of" come from?
"on account of" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list