bean counter
bean counter noun: a person who is excessively interested in controlling or reducing expenses, increasing profits, or in quantitative details in general.
Noun
bean counter (plural bean counters)
- A person who is excessively interested in controlling or reducing expenses, increasing profits, or in quantitative details in general.
- As any good bean counter will tell you, it costs money to treat people at a hospital.1985 August 2, “Editorial: Sniffing at DOC health costs”, in Gainsville Sun, retrieved 13 Sep 2009, page 14A
- And, in our case, the accounting firm of Halpern & Mantovani, CPA, in Encino, Calif., Chais' chief bean counter, pumped out the quarterly statements as if it were all rock solid.2008 December 23, Robert Chew, “Who Is Bernie Madoff? Many Investors Didn't Ask”, in Time, retrieved 13 Sep 2009
Forms of bean counter
| plural | bean counters |
|---|---|
| alternative form | bean-counter |
| alternative form | beancounter |
Origin of bean counter
Probably from German Erbsenzähler (literally “pea counter”).
Questions about bean counter
- What does bean counter mean?
- Bean counter means a person who is excessively interested in controlling or reducing expenses, increasing profits, or in quantitative details in general.
- What part of speech is bean counter?
- Bean counter is a noun.
- What is the plural of bean counter?
- The plural of bean counter is bean counters.
Words near bean counter in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bean counter (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-bean counter.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bean counter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bean_counter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.