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Account vs Contract - What's the difference?

account | contract |

In transitive terms the difference between account and contract

is that account is to estimate, consider (something to be as described) while contract is to gain or acquire (an illness).

In intransitive terms the difference between account and contract

is that account is to cause the death, capture, or destruction of someone or something (+ {{term|for}}) while contract is to make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.

In obsolete terms the difference between account and contract

is that account is to recount, relate (a narrative etc.) while contract is not abstract; concrete.

As nouns the difference between account and contract

is that account is 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 while contract is an agreement between two or more parties, to perform a specific job or work order, often temporary or of fixed duration and usually governed by a written agreement.

As verbs the difference between account and contract

is that account is to provide explanation while contract is to draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.

As an adjective contract is

contracted; affianced; betrothed.

account

English

Etymology 1

* First attested around 1300. ((reckoning of moneys received and paid)) * (banking) First attested in 1833. * (narration) First attested in the 1610's. * From (etyl), from (etyl)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (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
  • (banking) A sum of money deposited at a bank and subject to withdrawal.
  • to keep one's account at the bank.
  • A statement in general of reasons, causes, grounds, etc., explanatory of some event; a reason of an action to be done.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
  • , author=Stephen Ledoux , title=Behaviorism at 100 , volume=100, issue=1, page=60 , magazine= citation , passage=Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.}}
    No satisfactory account has been given of these phenomena.
  • A reason, grounds, consideration, motive.
  • on no account
    on every account
    on all accounts
  • * Episode 16
  • ...who evidently a glutton for work, it struck him, was having a quiet forty winks for all intents and purposes on his own private account while Dublin slept.
  • (business) A business relationship involving the exchange of money and credit.
  • A record of events; recital of transactions; a relation or narrative; a report; a description
  • An account of a battle.
  • * (rfdate) A laudable account of the city of London. - Howell
  • A statement explaining one's conduct.
  • * (rfdate) Give an account of thy stewardship. - Luke 16:2
  • An estimate or estimation; valuation; judgment.
  • * (rfdate) To stand high in your account - Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, III-ii
  • Importance; worth; value; esteem; judgement.
  • * (rfdate) Men of account -
  • * (rfdate) To turn to account - Shakespeare
  • An authorization to use a service.
  • I've opened an account with Wikipedia so that I can contribute and partake in the project.
  • (archaic) A reckoning; computation; calculation; enumeration; a record of some reckoning.
  • Profit; advantage.
  • Usage notes
    * Abbreviations: (business) * of Account , narrative, narration, recital. These words are 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; as, an ' account of a battle, of a shipwreck, etc. * A narrative' is a continuous story of connected incidents, such as one friend might tell to another; as, a '''narrative''' of the events of a siege, a ' narrative of one's life, 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; as, the ' recital of one's wrongs, disappointments, sufferings, etc.
    Synonyms
    * (registry of pecuniary transactions) * (statement of occurrences) narrative, narration, relation, recital, description, explanation * (a statement of reasons) accounting, explanation * (a reason) * (a vindication) defense, excuse, explanation * (estimate) * * (authorization to use a service) membership, registration, username
    Derived terms
    (Financial terms) * account balance * account book * account code * account executive * account number * account payable * account receivable * account stated * active account * bank account * book account * capital account * cash account * cast accounts * charge account * checking account * concentration account * control account * credit account * current account * custodial account * deferred account * deposit account * discretionary account * dormant account * drawing account * escrow account * expense account * final account * frozen account * general account * giro account * house account * insured account * joint account * managed account * margin account * merchant account * mixed account * money of account * nostro account * NOW account * numbered account * omnibus account * open account * option account * overdraft checking account * pension account * profit and loss account * reserved account * restricted account * retirement account * savings account * separate account * share premium account * suspense account * sweep account * trading account * transaction account * trust account * trustee account * undermargined account * undivided account * valuation account * vostro account * western account * wrap account * zero-balance account (Non-financial terms) * account current: a running or continued account between two or more parties, or a statement of the particulars of such an account * call to account * cast up one's accounts * hold to account * in account with: in a relation requiring an account to be kept * no-account * on account of: for the sake of; by reason of; because of * on no account * on one's own account: for one's own interest or behalf * make account: (Obsolete): to have an opinion or expectation; to reckon * make account of: to hold in estimation; to esteem; as, he makes' small ' account of beauty * shell account * short account * take account of, or take into account: to take into consideration; to notice * a writ of account: (Law): a writ which the plaintiff brings demanding that the defendant shall render his just account, or show good cause to the contrary; -- called also an action of account - Cowell * take into account * theoretical account

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) acounter, (accomptere) et al., (etyl) aconter, (acompter), from (a-) + . Compare (count).

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to provide explanation
  • # (obsolete) To present an account of; to answer for, to justify.
  • #
  • # To estimate, consider (something to be as described).
  • #* 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), , III.8:
  • The Pagan Hercules, why was he accounted a hero?
  • # To consider (that).
  • #* 1611 , Bible , Authorized (King James) Version, Hebrews XI.19:
  • Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
  • # To give a satisfactory evaluation (for) financial transactions, money received etc.
  • An officer must account with or to the treasurer for money received.
  • # To give a satisfactory evaluation (for) (one's actions, behaviour etc.); to answer (for).
  • We must account for the use of our opportunities.
  • # To give a satisfactory reason (for); to explain.
  • Idleness accounts for poverty.
  • # To establish the location (for) someone.
  • After the crash, not all passengers were accounted for.
  • # To cause the death, capture, or destruction of someone or something (+ (for)).
  • to count
  • #
  • #* 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.
  • # (obsolete) To count (up), enumerate.
  • # (obsolete) To recount, relate (a narrative etc.).
  • #* 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
    * account for * account of

    Statistics

    *

    contract

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl), from (etyl) contract, from (etyl) contractum, past participle of .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An agreement between two or more parties, to perform a specific job or work order, often temporary or of fixed duration and usually governed by a written agreement.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington
  • , title= Keeping the mighty honest , passage=British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.}}
  • (legal) An agreement which the law will enforce in some way. A legally binding contract must contain at least one promise, i.e., a commitment or offer, by an offeror to and accepted by an offeree to do something in the future. A contract is thus executory rather than executed.
  • (legal) A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.
  • (informal) An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.
  • (bridge) The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.
  • Hypernyms
    * (agreement that is legally binding) agreement
    Hyponyms
    * (agreement that is legally binding) bailment
    Derived terms
    * contractual * fixed-term contract * contract of employment

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) Not abstract; concrete.
  • * Robert Recorde, , 1557:
  • But now in eche kinde of these, there are certaine nombers named Ab?tracte'': and other called nombers ''Contracte .

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl), from (etyl) contracter, from (etyl) contractum, past participle of . the verb developed after the noun, and originally meant only "draw together"; the sense "make a contract with" developed later.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (ambitransitive) To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.
  • The snail's body contracted into its shell.
    to contract one's sphere of action
  • * Wordsworth
  • Years contracting to a moment.
  • * Dr. H. More
  • In all things desuetude doth contract and narrow our faculties.
  • (grammar) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
  • The word "cannot" is often contracted into "can't".
  • To enter into a contract with. (rfex)
  • To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
  • * Hakluyt
  • We have contracted an inviolable amity, peace, and league with the aforesaid queen.
  • * Strype
  • Many persons prohibited by law.
  • To make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.
  • to contract for carrying the mail
  • To bring on; to incur; to acquire.
  • She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.
    to contract a debt
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Each from each contract new strength and light.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • Such behaviour we contract by having much conversed with persons of high stature.
  • To gain or acquire (an illness).
  • * 1999 , Davidson C. Umeh, Protect Your Life: A Health Handbook for Law Enforcement Professionals (page 69)
  • An officer contracted hepatitis B and died after handling the blood-soaked clothing of a homicide victim
  • To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Thou didst contract and purse thy brow.
  • To betroth; to affiance.
  • * Shakespeare
  • The truth is, she and I, long since contracted , / Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us.
    Synonyms
    * (lessen) abate, decrease, lessen, reduce * (shorten) shorten, shrink * catch, get
    Antonyms
    * (lessen) increase, expand * (shorten) grow, lengthen