The process of calculating or determining something, or a time when someone must face consequences for their actions.
From 'reckon' (see above). In Middle English, 'reckoning' was purely mathematical (as in 'day of reckoning' from accounting), but by the 1500s it gained the moral sense of judgment or facing consequences — religious language gave it weight.
'The day of reckoning' entered common speech through religious revival preaching in the 1800s, and the phrase became so powerful that politicians and journalists use it to describe economic crises, natural disasters, and moral scandals — it reveals how we still unconsciously use religious concepts to frame accountability.
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