account for

verb

1. to give reasons for (an event, act, etc)
2. to make or provide a reckoning of (expenditure, payments, etc)
3. to be responsible for destroying, killing, or putting (people, aircraft, etc) out of action

Example Sentences

According to Barclays Research, data centres account for 3.5% of electricity consumption in the US today, but that figure could rise to more than 9% by the end of the decade.

From BBC

Other limitations are that the study could not account for heart damage after the six-month follow-up and did not look at other factors like survival or quality of life.

From Science Daily

The LAO said their outlook accounts for higher costs to fight wildfires, but doesn’t calculate in other unanticipated disasters, such as earthquakes or another pandemic.

From Los Angeles Times

It will take at least $20,000 just to do that, and that’s not accounting for his nearly entire loss of this year’s harvest, he said.

From Los Angeles Times

The incentives would apply in single-family zones only if a property is owned by a public agency or a faith-based organization, which accounts for just a sliver of the city’s single-family lots.

From Los Angeles Times