Accountable

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /əˈkaʊntəbl̩/

Definitions

1. Responsible for one's actions and required to explain or justify them to others
2. Being answerable for decisions and actions, with an obligation to clarify or defend those choices to others
3. Having the duty to take ownership of actions taken and to provide rationale or justification as necessary to relevant parties

Etymology: "Accountable" is a plain formation: the noun "account" with the suffix "-able," meaning "capable of being" or "fit to be." Its earliest recorded use dates to around 1400, and it originally meant something close to "able to be counted or reckoned," a sense that survives in the older idea of an account as a reckoning of money owed or received. The modern sense of answerability grew out of that financial meaning. To give an account of something was to render a reckoning of what one had done with entrusted resources, so a person who could be called to give such a reckoning was, in effect, someone who could be held to account. Over time the word shifted from describing something that could be counted to describing a person who must explain and justify their conduct to others.

Synonyms: responsible, answerable, liable, explainable, justifiable

Antonyms: irresponsible, unaccountable, exempt