[f. ACCOUNTABLE: see -ITY.] The quality of being accountable; liability to give account of, and answer for, discharge of duties or conduct; responsibility, amenableness. = ACCOUNTABLENESS.
1794. S. Williams, Hist. Vermont, 140. No mutual checks and ballances, accountability and responsibility.
1808. Mem. Dr. J. Cadman (1853), 75. God, from all eternity, has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass; yet in such a manner as not to be the author of sin, nor to affect the accountability of man.
1837. J. Harris, Grt. Teacher, 170. The perception of your new accountability might well impress you with an awful concern.
1849. Grote, Greece, V. II. xlvi. 475. Individual magistrates exposed to annual accountability.
1859. Mill, Dissert., I. 467. Pushing to its utmost extent the accountability of governments to the people.
