different between improvement vs account

English

Alternative forms

• emprovement (obsolete)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman emprouwement; synchronically improve +? -ment.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?p?u?vm?nt/
• Hyphenation: im?prove?ment

Noun

improvement (countable and uncountable, plural improvements)

1. The act of improving; advancement or growth; a bettering
   • November 9, 1662, Robert South, Of the Creation of Man in the Image of God

     I look upon your city as […] the best place of improvement.

   • 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres

     Exercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties.
2. The act of making profitable use or application of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; practical application, for example of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse.
   • 1705, Samuel Clarke, Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion

     good improvement of his reason.

   • 1681, John Tillotson, A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Mr Thomas Gouge

     I shall make some improvement of this doctrine.

3. The state of being improved; betterment; advance
4. Something which is improved

   • The parts of Sinon, Camilla, and some few others, are improvements on the Greek poet.

5. Increase; growth; progress; advance.

   • Those vices which more particularly receive improvement by prosperity.

6. (in the plural) Valuable additions or betterments, for example buildings, clearings, drains, fences, etc., on premises.
7. (Patent Laws): A useful addition to, or modification of, a machine, manufacture, or composition.

Synonyms

• improval, amelioration

Antonyms

• worsening
• deterioration
• disimprovement

Hyponyms

• self-improvement

Derived terms

• disimprovement

See also

• uplift

Translations

References

improvement in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English improvement.

Noun

improvement m (invariable)

1. (rare) improvement

   Synonyms: miglioramento, perfezionamento

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?.?ka?nt/
• Rhymes: -a?nt
• Hyphenation: ac?count

Etymology 1

From Middle English account, acounte, accounten, from Anglo-Norman acunte (“account”), from Old French aconte, from aconter (“to reckon”), from Latin comput? (“to sum up”).

Noun

account (plural accounts)

1. (accounting) A registry of pecuniary transactions; a written or printed statement of business dealings or debts and credits, and also of other things subjected to a reckoning or review. [from c. 1300]
2. (banking) A bank account.
   • 1910, Journal of the American Bankers Association Vol. XI, No. 1, American Bankers Association, page 3:

     The Pueblo bank has advised that the operator opened an account at that bank with currency, and a few days later withdrew the amount.

3. A statement in general of reasons, causes, grounds, etc., explanatory of some event; a reason of an action to be done.

   Synonyms: accounting, explanation
4. A reason, grounds, consideration, motive; a person's sake.
5. A record of events; a relation or narrative. [from c. 1610]

   Synonyms: narrative, narration, relation, recital, report, description, explanation

   • 1657, James Howell, Londonopolis: An Historical Discourse or Perlustration of the City of London

     A laudible account of the city of London.
6. An estimate or estimation; valuation; judgment.
7. Importance; worth; value; esteem; judgement.
8. Authorization as a specific registered user in accessing a system.

   Synonyms: membership, registration

   Meronym: username

9. (archaic) A reckoning; computation; calculation; enumeration; a record of some reckoning.
10. Profit; advantage.

Usage notes

• Abbreviations: (business): A/C, a/c, acct., acc.
• Account, narrative, narration, recital are all words applied to different modes of rehearsing a series of events
  • Account turns attention not so much to the speaker as to the fact related, and more properly applies to the report of some single event, or a group of incidents taken as whole; for example, a vivid account of a battle, of a shipwreck, of an anecdote, etc.
  • A narrative is a continuous story of connected incidents, such as one friend might tell to another; for example, a narrative of the events of a siege, a narrative of one's life, the narrative of the film etc.
  • Narration is usually the same as narrative, but is sometimes used to describe the mode of relating events; as, his powers of narration are uncommonly great.
  • Recital denotes a series of events drawn out into minute particulars, usually expressing something which peculiarly interests the feelings of the speaker; such as, the recital of one's wrongs, disappointments, sufferings, etc, a piano recital (played without sheet music), a recital of a poem (learned by heart).

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ????? (akaunto)
• ? Swahili: akaunti

Translations

Etymology 2

From Old French acounter, accomptere et al., from a- + conter (“to count”)). Compare count.

Verb

account (third-person singular simple present accounts, present participle accounting, simple past and past participle accounted)

1. To provide explanation.
   1. (obsolete, transitive) To present an account of; to answer for, to justify. [14th-17th c.]
   2. (intransitive, now rare) To give an account of financial transactions, money received etc. [from 14th c.]
   3. (transitive) To estimate, consider (something to be as described). [from 14th c.]

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:deem

      • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, III.8:

        The Pagan Hercules, why was he accounted a hero?

   4. (intransitive) To consider that. [from 14th c.]

      • Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

   5. (intransitive) To give a satisfactory evaluation for financial transactions, money received etc. [from 15th c.]

   6. (intransitive) To give a satisfactory evaluation for (one's actions, behaviour etc.); to answer for. [from 16th c.]

   7. (intransitive) To give a satisfactory reason for; to explain. [from 16th c.]

   8. (intransitive) To establish the location for someone. [from 19th c.]

   9. (intransitive) To cause the death, capture, or destruction of someone or something (+ for). [from 19th c.]
2. To count.
   1. (transitive, now rare) To calculate, work out (especially with periods of time). [from 14th c.]
      • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica:

        neither the motion of the Moon, whereby moneths are computed; nor of the Sun, whereby years are accounted, consisteth of whole numbers, but admits of fractions, and broken parts, as we have already declared concerning the Moon.

   2. (obsolete) To count (up), enumerate. [14th-17th c.]
   3. (obsolete) To recount, relate (a narrative etc.). [14th-16th c.]
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.6:

        Long worke it were / Here to account the endlesse progeny / Of all the weeds that bud and blossome there [...].

Derived terms

Translations

Related terms

• accountable
• accountant

Further reading

• account on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• account (bookkeeping) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• account at OneLook Dictionary Search
• account in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English account.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??k?u?nt/
• Hyphenation: ac?count

Noun

account n (plural accounts, diminutive accountje n)

1. a subscription to an electronic service

Related terms

• accountant

Descendants

• ? Indonesian: akun

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English account. Doublet of conto.

Noun

account m (invariable)

1. (computing) account

   Synonym: conto

Further reading

• account in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana