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Glite Dictionary
to account for

to account for

308 3.2
To explain why something happened
  • phrasal verb
  • /əˈkaʊnt fɔr/
translation icon : explicar
  • Certainly, there is no single reason that accounts for the situation in which the profession finds itself.
  • account for differences
  • factors account for
  • predictors account for

And that accounts for the large airborne time.

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Examples

  • That would account for the interrupted phone service.

    Phantoms (1998)

  • So what I've tried to do, create a strategy that accounts for those mistakes.

  • And your test should account for this difference.

  • So one could again try to account for the size of this effect.

  • Then we need to account for this rotation.

  • Studies of that era, however, were not able to account for differences in stage of disease at diagnosis.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Well, you can't account for everything in life, right?

  • They have to account for their funds, they have to account for their decision making processes.

    Stanford

  • In the United States alone, McDonald's accounts for 43 percent of the total fast-food market.

    Super Size Me (2004)

  • The researchers must account for the variables that could affect their results.

Synonyms

to explain
vsto account for
∞ 1.0

To show why something happened

is used to give reasons as a formal justification rather than only clarify
to justify
vsto account for
720 3.4

To give good reasons that something you did is right

is about giving reasons to clarify causes rather than proving rightness

How Clear

to prove
∞ 3.1
to explain
∞ 1.0
to account for
308 3.2
to justify
720 3.4
to suggest
∞ 1.6

Surface Forms

account for infinitive
accounted for past
accounted for past participle
accounting for present participle
accounts for third person singular

Morphology

account + for

The meaning 'to explain the reason for something' is directly and compositionally built from the verb 'account' (to explain/justify) plus the preposition 'for' marking reason or purpose. This verb + preposition pattern is a standard, cross-linguistically common construction, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to derive the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Account for comes from the idea of a record book: an account shows where money or items went. So to account for something is like showing the entries in that book to 'explain' it, which is why it now means 'give a reason' or 'explain'.