MEANING
According to what people generally say or report about someone or something.
Use it for
reporting what others generally say; summarizing a shared secondhand impression; attributing a judgment to multiple reports; distinguishing reported reputation from firsthand knowledgeAttributes a judgment to generally agreeing reports rather than to the writer’s direct experience. Writing functions: Judgment based on reports. Semantic categories (by meaning): Reported information; Attribution. Contexts: General conversation; Journalism; Narrative.
On the page
By all accounts, the new director listens carefully before making changes.
The crossing was difficult, by all accounts, but nobody was injured.
Word forms
- Base
- by all accounts
Usage notes
Sentence adverbial, often followed by a comma when placed first. Accounts stays plural. From all accounts is a conventional alternative. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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