Accountability
Etymology
From “account,” via Old French “aconter,” “to reckon, count up,” from Latin “computare.” To be accountable is to be required to render an account — to give a reckoning of what you did. The bookkeeping metaphor is literal: the powerful are asked to show their ledger.
noun · /uh-kown-tuh-BIL-ih-tee/
The condition of being answerable for one’s actions and liable to face consequences for them.
What it names
Use it when the point is not just that someone is responsible but that a mechanism exists to make them explain themselves and bear the results.
Example
The inquiry was meant to bring the officials to account, but no one was ever charged.
Related idea
Responsibility is having a duty; accountability is being answerable for how you discharged it. You can hold a role responsibly and still escape accountability if no one has the power to demand your reckoning — which is why impunity is accountability’s opposite.