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I believe I have a good understanding of the phrase. But I need to be sure that I am correct.

"Takes no account of" can mean to disregard something or to not consider something. But I can't find a definition in a dictionary apart from Free dictionary that says, To not think about, consider, or pay attention to someone or something.

The Guardian has some examples:

The measure takes no account of leisure time, meaning that two countries might have equal GDP but one has workers toiling for 12 hour days and the other only eight.

GDP includes rough estimates for the value of drugs and prostitution, yet fails to take account of unpaid work in the home.

I need to say that something (e.g., the computation of GDP) knowingly and purposefully takes no account of something else (e.g., living standards, happiness, leisure time). "Disregard" is perhaps the right word.

It is quite different than saying John went out without his raincoat. He took no account of the fact that it would be pouring today. Here, John might have simply made a mistake and forgotten about the raincoat. He did not purposefully do that.

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    Gross Domestic Product is designed to measure the tax base: The total rate of economic activity within a jurisdiction that could potentially be taxed. – Jasper Jul 23 '19 at 0:52
  • @Jasper for sure, what you say is one of the purposes/definitions of GDP. My example is so awful I can't really believe I couldn't come up with a better one. Thanks for pointing this out though! – AIQ Jul 23 '19 at 1:09
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"Takes no account of" can mean "intentionally disregards" but can just as easily mean "fails to allow for".

  • For purposes of the exercise we take no account of atmospheric friction. (The friction factor has been intentionally left out of the solution.)
  • This solution takes no account of logistic delays, and so may be inaccurate. (A possibly significant factor has been ignored, probably not intentionally.)

"Ignore" has the same ambiguity, it can be used for both intentional and unintentional situations.

  • The failure in classic economic analysis is that it ignores people's non-economic desires.
  • Game theory ignores that not winning by 5 points feels less important to many people than losing by 5 points does.

In both of these examples "ignores" is being used for an unintentional oversight, not an intentional simplification.

I think there is no single English word which clearly and unambiguously conveys this distinction. I would suggest modifying "omits", "ignores", "disregards", or "takes no account of" with "intentionally" "purposefully" or some similar adverb. For example:

This solution will intentionally take no account of atmospheric friction.

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  • Thanks, this really helped! – AIQ Jul 24 '19 at 4:27
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"Ignore" will do. It differes from "forget" in that it is purposeful.

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  • I know both ignore and disregard works, but I am specifically trying to use that phrase as it better suits my sentence. Do you think "takes no account of" fits the two words? – AIQ Jul 22 '19 at 21:13
  • I now do not know what you are asking. "Takes no account of" expresses your general meaning, but on its own, it does not express deliberation. That can be fixed, as you yourself showed, through one or more adverbs. For reasons that I cannot articulate, "disregard" offends my personal sense of style. I'd use "ignore," but the other options are grammatical and idiomatic. – Jeff Morrow Jul 22 '19 at 21:30
  • "ignore" need not indicate a purposeful action. – David Siegel Jul 22 '19 at 21:56
  • According to my concise oed, "ignore" means "refuse to take notice of." That implies purpose. – Jeff Morrow Jul 23 '19 at 15:37
  • @Jeff macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/ignore gives "to not consider something, or to not let it influence you" and gives as an example "This approach ignores the complexity of modern business." Cambridge gives "to give no attention to something or someone" Collins gives: "If you say that an argument or theory ignores an important aspect of a situation, you are criticizing it because it fails to consider that aspect or to take it into account. " – David Siegel Jul 24 '19 at 21:21

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