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# accountability

«accountability» in Mova's school dictionary: **being responsible for what you do and being ready to…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (accountability — uncountable)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Accountability means being responsible for what you do and being ready to explain it and accept the results: «taking accountability for a mistake». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accountability/#m1)

2) (formal) In government and work, accountability means that people in charge must explain their decisions to others and can be held to blame. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accountability/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In ethics and citizenship lessons, accountability is part of fairness: leaders answer to voters, schools to inspectors, children to their families. In everyday life, owning up to a mistake shows accountability. Phrases: «take accountability», «hold someone to account», «accountability for».

### examples

- Owning up to breaking the vase showed real accountability. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accountability/#x1)
- Voters want accountability from their leaders. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accountability/#x2)
- Our class has a rota so there is accountability for tidying up. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accountability/#x3)
- The coach talked about accountability: everyone is responsible for the team. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accountability/#x4)
- The report called for more accountability in the council. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accountability/#x5)
- Taking accountability means saying sorry and fixing things. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accountability/#x6)

### note

Uncountable. From «accountable» (responsible, able to be asked to explain). Formal; everyday talk says «owning up», «taking responsibility». Not about money, though it comes from the same word as «account».

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «accountability» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/accountability/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.