take into account

T

take into account (idiom)
/teɪk ˌɪntuː əˈkaʊnt/

Meanings

• To consider something carefully before making a decision.
• To include a fact, condition, or detail in your judgment or plan.
• To give proper attention to something important.
• To allow for something when calculating or evaluating.
• To treat something as a relevant factor.

Synonyms: consider; include; allow for; factor in; bear in mind; keep in mind; take account of; reckon with; think about; weigh.

Example Sentences

1. Before choosing a new apartment, Sarah took into account the distance from her office and the monthly rent.
2. The teacher took into account each student’s effort, not just the final exam score.
3. We must take into account the weather conditions before planning the outdoor wedding.
4. The engineer took into account the extra weight when designing the bridge.
5. Good leaders always take into account how their decisions affect other people.

Etymology and Origin

The idiom “take into account” traces its linguistic foundation to the noun “account,” which entered English around the early fourteenth century with the core sense of a reckoning or detailed statement of money, property, or obligations.

This term derived from Old French acont, denoting a financial tally or terminal payment, itself rooted in Late Latin computus (a calculation) and ultimately Latin computare (to count or sum up together).

The underlying concept involved systematic enumeration and evaluation, a practice central to medieval commerce and administration, where one literally compiled lists or inventories to assess value or liability.

Semantic Development

Over time, the literal act of compiling or reviewing such a reckoning acquired a broader figurative dimension. Initially denoting the preparation of an inventory in practical contexts like trade or stewardship, the construction evolved to encompass mental consideration or deliberate inclusion of relevant factors in judgment or planning.

This shift reflects a natural transition from tangible bookkeeping to abstract reasoning, where “taking account” came to mean factoring in circumstances, evidence, or variables that might otherwise be overlooked. By the late seventeenth century, the specific variant “take into account” had stabilized in this extended sense of conscious deliberation.

Geographical and Historical Context

The phrase first emerged within the linguistic environment of England during the transition from Middle English to Early Modern English. As a product of native semantic extension rather than direct borrowing from another language, it arose amid the flourishing of commercial, legal, and scholarly discourse in Britain, where accounting practices were increasingly formalized in everyday affairs. No evidence points to origins outside the English-speaking regions of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the idiom spread from there through literary and administrative texts.

Earliest Printed Records

Printed attestations of the related form “take account of,” signifying initial consideration or inventory, appear as early as 1549 in an English theological disputation concerning the Eucharist, where the phrasing urges careful evaluation of multiple duties and obligations in a manner akin to systematic review.

The precise construction “take into account” surfaces in records from the 1680s onward in English writings, marking its establishment as a standard expression for deliberate inclusion of elements in thought or decision-making. These early instances illustrate the idiom’s gradual consolidation from specialized usage into wider application across narrative, argumentative, and advisory prose.

Variants

• take account of
• take into consideration
• factor in
• allow for
• bear in mind

Important, Mathematics, Mind

Last update: April 28, 2026 7:39 AM