Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - account for

1. If a particular thing accounts for a part or proportion of something, that part or proportion consists of that thing, or is used or produced by it. Computers account for 5% of the country’s commercial electricity consumption. PHRASAL VERB: V P n 2. If something accounts for a particular fact or situation, it causes or explains it. Now, the gene they discovered today doesn’t account for all those cases. = explain PHRASAL VERB: V P n 3. If you can account for something, you can explain it or give the necessary information about it. How do you account for the company’s alarmingly high staff turnover?... He said only 200 of the train’s 600 passengers had been accounted for. = explain PHRASAL VERB: V P n, V P n 4. If someone has to account for an action or policy, they are responsible for it, and may be required to explain it to other people or be punished if it fails. The President and the President alone must account for his government’s reforms. = answer for PHRASAL VERB: V P n 5. If a sum of money is accounted for in a budget, it has been included in that budget for a particular purpose. The really heavy redundancy costs have been accounted for. = budget for PHRASAL VERB: be V-ed P