Account for

How it is used

Both meanings are common in results and discussion sections. Explaining: 'Age may account for these differences.' Proportion: 'Women accounted for 60% of the sample.' In statistics, a variable or model accounts for a percentage of the variance.

Example sentences

1. Differences in prior knowledge may account for the gap between the two groups.

2. International students accounted for nearly a third of the respondents.

3. The model accounts for 35% of the variance in exam scores.

Common collocations

• account for the difference
• account for the variance
• partly account for
• account for a large proportion

Related terms

• analysisDetailed examination of data or a text in order to identify patterns, relationships or meaning, often using statistical or qualitative techniques.
• findingsThe results or information that a study discovers after its data have been collected and analyzed.
• correlationA statistical relationship between two variables in which they tend to change together, either in the same or in opposite directions.
• significantIn statistics, describing a result unlikely to be due to chance alone at a chosen level such as p < .05; in general use, large or important enough to matter.

More terms: Data and Analysis

• data
• draw a conclusion
• thematic analysis
• interpret
• dataset
• mean
• standard deviation
• descriptive statistics
• p-value
• coding
• trend
• transcribe