to credit to an account: to enter something on a person's ledger, so that it officially counts for or against them.
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
This is the bookkeeping side of the word. It pictures an account being kept: a sum entered, a debt charged, a credit posted. To do this to a person is to make something stand on their record, so that from then on it counts. The same act can run two ways, in their favor or against them, and the word does not change; only the entry does.
Paul builds his whole argument about being made right with God on this single image. Quoting Genesis, he says Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. The point of the picture is that the credit is not wages owed for work done but a gift posted to the account of someone who trusted. The reverse entry matters just as much: the truly happy person is the one whose sin the Lord will not charge to the account. God's not counting trespasses is the heart of reconciliation.
The word also covers the plainer act of counting a person or thing into a class, putting them down as belonging to a category. Jesus was counted among criminals; an idol's temple could be reckoned as nothing. In every case the meaning is the same accounting move: this is entered as that.
Nuances
1ato credit something to a person as righteousness or in their favor.
to consider: to weigh something in the mind and arrive at a settled judgment about it.
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
This is the thinking side of the word. Here it is not a ledger but a mind at work: turning a matter over, taking it into account, and concluding that something is so. It ranges from a careful reasoned conclusion to a steady way of regarding a person or situation.
Paul uses it for his own considered verdicts. He concludes that a person is made right by faith; he considers that present sufferings do not compare with the coming glory; he does not regard himself as having already arrived. He also presses readers to make a deliberate reckoning of their own: to consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God, to keep their minds fixed on whatever is true and honorable. The word asks for thought that lands somewhere, not idle musing.
The same verb covers how we size up other people, treating them as being a certain way. Some sized Paul up as merely a worldly operator; he asks instead that people regard him and his colleagues as servants of Christ. In every case the action is an act of judgment formed in the mind, whether about a fact, a course of action, or a person.
Nuances
2ato conclude, to judge after reflection that something is the case.
Rom 3:28Rom 8:181Co 13:112Co 3:52Co 11:5Php 3:13Heb 11:191Pe 5:12
2bto regard or treat someone or something as being a certain way.
the Greek is an everyday commercial word for posting an entry to an account, vivid and concrete in Paul's argument about Abraham.Rom 4:6Rom 4:8
Both
both name the act of crediting or charging something to a person so that it officially counts for or against them.Rom 4:3
Only impute
the English impute sounds technical and theological, a term of art rarely used in ordinary speech, hiding the plain bookkeeping picture the Greek carried.
the Greek can also mean to credit or charge to an account, a sense the English consider never carries.Rom 4:8
Both
both name the act of weighing a matter and judging it to be so.Rom 8:18
Only consider
consider can suggest mere passing thought, while the Greek in its thinking sense lands on a settled verdict.
“count”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“credit”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“think”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How logizomai differs from similar Greek words
ἡγέομαιto regard or count something as being a certain way, close to the considering sense, but without the ledger picture of crediting or charging to an account.
Its home is the ledger: to count, total up, and put something on a person's account, whether a debt charged against them or a credit placed in their favor.Rom 4:3Rom 4:4Rom 4:8Gal 3:62Co 5:19
It also covers the quiet work of the mind: reasoning a matter out, drawing a conclusion, or simply keeping no record of a wrong.Rom 8:181Co 13:51Co 13:11Heb 11:19
Both
Both can mean to regard one thing as being a certain way, forming a judgment about it rather than stating a plain fact.Php 3:82Th 3:15Rom 6:11Rom 14:14
It is the word for leading or being in charge: a ruler, a chief, the one who goes ahead and others follow.Mat 2:6Luk 22:26Act 7:10Heb 13:7
When it means to consider, it weighs the worth of a thing and reaches a settled verdict about how much it counts: a deliberate estimate of value, gain, or loss.Php 2:3Php 3:7Php 3:8Heb 11:262Pe 3:9
νομίζωto suppose or assume, often a customary or surface impression, where this word implies a more deliberate, reasoned reckoning.
κρίνωto judge or decide, often formally or legally, where this word is the quieter act of considering or entering something on a reckoning.
Carries the bookkeeping sense of crediting or charging to someone's account, the language of imputation. Abraham's faith was "counted" to him as righteousness, and the person whose sin the Lord will not "reckon" against him is called blessed.Rom 4:3Rom 4:8
Also means to draw a conclusion by reasoning, to work something out and hold it settled. Paul "reckons" that the present sufferings are not worth comparing with the coming glory, and "concludes" that a person is justified by faith.Rom 8:18Rom 3:28
Both
Both name a deliberate act of the mind: fixing attention on something and taking it to heart rather than letting it pass. One word urges considering Jesus who endured; the other urges dwelling on whatever is true, honorable, and lovely.Heb 12:3Php 4:8
Presses toward sustained, comparative pondering: mentally going over something again and again to draw strength or a lesson from it. In its one appearance the readers are told to keep considering Jesus, who endured such hostility, so that they do not grow weary and lose heart.Heb 12:3
carries the bookkeeping sense of crediting or charging something to a person's account, above all counting righteousness to them and not counting their sinRom 4:3Rom 4:82Co 5:19
means to reason a matter out and settle on a firm conclusion, a reckoning arrived at by deliberate calculationRom 8:18Heb 11:19Php 3:13
Both
both can simply mean to hold an opinion, to consider something the case and say so when askedMat 22:42Luk 10:36Rom 2:32Co 10:7
Counts or credits something to a person's account, like an entry in a ledger. God credits Abraham's faith to him as righteousness.Rom 4:3Gal 3:6Jas 2:23
Reaches a settled conclusion by weighing the facts, the way one works out a sum. Paul reasons that present suffering does not compare to the coming glory.Rom 8:18Rom 6:11Heb 11:19
Both
Both describe activity of the mind, and both can mark a childish way of thinking that maturity leaves behind.1Co 13:11
Names the whole bent of a person's mind, what they are set on, not a single calculation. Peter is rebuked for having his mind set on human things rather than God's.Mat 16:23Rom 8:5Col 3:2
Used to urge a shared outlook among people, a call to be of one mind together. Paul pleads with two believers to agree, and asks a whole church to think the same way.Php 4:2Php 2:2Rom 12:16
logizomai in the other biblical languages
חָשַׁבHebrew“to devise: devise”the main Hebrew word behind it, used in Genesis 15:6 of Abraham's faith credited as righteousness; it carries the same double range of crediting to an account and considering or planning.
Settles into the New Testament vocabulary of crediting righteousness: faith counted to a person as right standing before God.Rom 4:3Rom 4:5Gal 3:6
Used for sober reasoning and concluding a matter: weighing the evidence and reckoning what is true.Rom 8:18Heb 11:192Co 10:7
Both
Both mean to credit something to a person's account, and the Greek word renders the Hebrew in the foundational case of faith reckoned as righteousness.Gen 15:6Rom 4:3
Both can mean to regard or count one thing as another, assigning it a status in one's reckoning.Gen 31:15Rom 2:26
Credits something to a person's account, treating them as having a status they did not earn. Abraham's faith is counted to him as righteousness.Rom 4:3Gal 3:6Jas 2:23
Cancels a debt by refusing to enter it in the ledger: God does not charge a person's sins to their account.Rom 4:82Co 5:19
Names a work of the mind: to regard, weigh, or consider something as true, with no counting of a quantity at all.Rom 8:18Php 4:8Heb 11:19
Both
Both can reckon a person as belonging to a group. Isaiah says the servant was numbered among the transgressors, and the New Testament applies that very line to Jesus.Isa 53:12Luk 22:37
Counts a real quantity by its actual tally: the stars of the sky, the dust of the earth, the people of a census.Gen 13:16Psa 147:42Sa 24:1
Appoints or assigns something to a task, a sense the Greek word never carries: God appointed a great fish, a plant, a worm, and a wind.Jon 1:17Jon 4:6Dan 1:5
What scholars say about logizomai
Standard lexica (BDAG, LSJ) divide the verb into a numerical or commercial domain (reckon, calculate, credit, charge to an account, count as belonging) and a mental domain (consider, think, conclude, be of the opinion); EDNT and TDNT (Heidland) trace the same two poles. In the Septuagint it regularly renders Hebrew chashab, including the pivotal Genesis 15:6, which gives Paul the accounting metaphor for righteousness credited to faith. The deponent middle-passive forms function actively. Discussion of the word clusters in Romans 4, where the question is whether the crediting of righteousness is forensic (a reckoning that declares the believer righteous) or transformative; the lexical sense is agreed, the theological application debated. Lexica treat the two domains as one polysemous verb rather than homonyms.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. λογίζομαιlexicon
LSJ, s.v. λογίζομαιlexicon
H. W. Heidland, λογίζομαι, in TDNT 4:284-292dictionary