How to Use account for (someone or something) in a Sentence

account for (someone or something)

phrasal verb
Definition of account for (someone or something)next
  • Fans account for 50% of the vote to decide the All-Star starters.
    — Evan Frank, The Indianapolis Star, 4 Jan. 2024
  • Now, banks account for less than half of the lending there.
    — Fortune Editors, Fortune, 16 May 2024
  • Both of these cases fail to account for the full picture.
    — Landon Block, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Nov. 2023
  • These four species account for most of the venomous snakebites in India.
    — Cassandra Willyard, Scientific American, 19 Sep. 2023
  • Taxes often account for 40% of the price of a bottle or can of beer.
    — David Lightman, Sacramento Bee, 16 June 2024
  • The sales account for as much as 40% of the country’s export revenue.
    — Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 22 Apr. 2024
  • Bosa is a dangerous pass rusher, and the Chiefs will need to account for him at all times.
    — Sam Farmer, Los Angeles Times, 8 Feb. 2024
  • If your sausage was lean, this may also account for a dry texture.
    — Southern Living Test Kitchen, Southern Living, 25 Oct. 2023
  • In fact, cars over 10 years old now account for more than 40 percent of the cars on America’s roads.
    — Owen Bellwood / Jalopnik, Quartz, 2 May 2024
  • That still didn't fully account for the difference in time, though.
    — Kerry Breen, CBS News, 28 Feb. 2024
  • But the union says its proposal cuts that amount to 57 cents to account for programming like news and sports that is not covered by the union.
    — Gene Maddaus, Variety, 17 Oct. 2023
  • Cliffs account for the largest part of California’s more than 1,000 miles of coastline.
    — Phil Diehl, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 July 2023
  • Add 7 inches to account for the total width needed per stool, then divide the length of the island by that number (25).
    — Addie Morton, Better Homes & Gardens, 17 Jan. 2024
  • However, the rate hikes at the Fed -- which stretch back to last March -- fail to account for the meteoric rise of Treasury bond yields in recent months.
    — Max Zahn, ABC News, 11 Oct. 2023
  • There are differences in equipment, and in ice size and quality that are hard to account for, and with the xanthan gum even more so.
    — Jason O'Bryan, Robb Report, 5 Aug. 2023
  • How does the Utah senator account for the rest of his party’s behavior?
    — Edith Olmsted, The New Republic, 14 Sep. 2023
  • Property crimes — burglaries, car theft and the like — account for 58 percent of all crimes in the region.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Oct. 2023
  • Obviously, decreased the size of the pan to account for smaller amount of meat mixture.
    — Southern Living Test Kitchen, Southern Living, 9 Dec. 2023
  • Matthew Perry put others first, as many can account for after his death.
    — Kelly Wynne, Peoplemag, 30 Oct. 2023
  • But that doesn’t account for a runner who is in the midst of running a series of flawless races, like St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred.
    — Hanif Abdurraqib, The New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2024
  • Studies have found that smaller wells produce just 6% of the nation’s oil and gas but account for up to half the methane emissions from well sites.
    — Matthew Daly, Fortune, 4 Dec. 2023
  • Baggy, loose, and wide-leg jeans now account for more than 80 percent of Pacsun’s denim sales.
    — Angela Velasquez, Sourcing Journal, 23 July 2024
  • These prices don't account for sales or deals that dispensaries may offer.
    — Taylor Ardrey, USA TODAY, 7 Aug. 2024
  • Salt lakes account for approximately 44% of the volume and 23% of the surface area of lakes worldwide.
    — Devika Rao, theweek, 13 Aug. 2024
  • The fire produced was impressively large (which could account for the slight smoke that was visible and smellable) and lasted a while.
    — Kat De Naoum, Better Homes & Gardens, 12 Sep. 2023
  • Leave plenty of distance between you and the vehicle in front of you to account for sudden stops or changes in the traffic pattern.
    — Star-Telegram Bot, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 26 Jan. 2024
  • Transportation would account for nearly half of that growth.
    — Justine Calma, The Verge, 23 July 2024
  • Critics note that the idea of a poisoner-villain doesn’t account for the complications of drug use.
    — Jan Hoffman, New York Times, 11 Mar. 2024
  • But the Fed could increasingly have to account for the hot job market, too, in deciding how much further to raise rates.
    — Rachel Siegel, Washington Post, 6 Oct. 2023
  • The amount of surface water locked in Mars’s polar caps is not remotely enough to account for what was once there—judging by the depth of the river and ocean depressions.
    — Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 13 Aug. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'account for (someone or something).' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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