Let A be a unital algebra with a nontrivial idempotent e, and f = 1 − e. Suppose that A satisfies that exe · eAf = {0} = f Ae · exe implies exe = 0 and eAf · f xf = {0} = f xf · f Ae implies f xf = 0 for each x in A. We obtain the (necessary and) sufficient conditions for a Lie n-derivation ϕ on A to be of the form ϕ = d + δ + γ, where d is a derivation on A, δ is a singular Jordan derivation on A and γ is a linear mapping from A into the centre Z(A) vanishing on all (n − 1)−th commutators of A. In particular, we also discuss the (necessary and) sufficient conditions for a Lie n-derivation ϕ on A to be standard, i.e., ϕ = d + γ.