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• teller
  teller

  noun

  a person or thing that tells, relates, or communicates; narrator.
• Teller
  Teller

  noun

  Edward, 1908–2003, U.S. physicist, born in Hungary.

teller

¹ American  

[tel-er] / ˈtɛl ər /

noun

1. a person or thing that tells, relates, or communicates; narrator.

   Grandpa was a great teller of tall, tall tales.

2. a person employed in a bank to receive or pay out money over the counter.

3. a person who tells, counts, or enumerates, as one appointed to count votes in a legislative body.

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Teller ² American  

[tel-er] / ˈtɛl ər /

noun

1. Edward, 1908–2003, U.S. physicist, born in Hungary.

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teller ¹ British  

/ ˈtɛlə /

noun

1. another name for cashier 1

2. a person appointed to count votes in a legislative body, assembly, etc

3. a person who tells; narrator

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Teller ² British  

/ ˈtɛlə /

noun

1. Edward. 1908–2003, US nuclear physicist, born in Hungary: a major contributor to the development of the hydrogen bomb (1952)

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Other Word Forms

• tellership
  noun
• underteller
  noun

Etymology

Origin of teller

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at tell ¹, -er ¹

Explanation

A teller is either someone who tells some sort of story or a person who works in a bank. A bank clerk who loves to talk about her adventures? She's both kinds of teller. You might be a teller of tales, known for spinning stories, or a teller of lies, famous for your fibs. If you're a teller at a bank, you cash customers' checks and make their deposits. There aren't as many bank tellers as there once were, since this job is increasingly done by ATMs, or automatic teller machines. Teller comes from an obscure sense of the verb tell, "count."

Example Sentences

Oscar nominee Colman Domingo plays the singer's father Joe Jackson in the film, which also stars Nia Long as mother Katherine Jackson, and Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller as entertainment lawyer John Branca.

From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026

Whether “The Abandons” was intended as a prequel to “Sons of Anarchy” seems to be unclear, though Teller is a name associated with both shows.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 4, 2025

As good as Teller is as a husband in crisis, the Oscar-winning Randolph is her own commanding source of light, enough to sell this movie’s feel-good abstracts and wry commentaries on her own.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 25, 2025

Mr Teller, who found it with his colleague Graeme Lyons, called it "one of those unforgettable discoveries".

From BBC • Oct. 30, 2025

A few weeks before Greenhouse, Bradbury had tried to mollify the willful physicist by creating a semiautonomous thermonuclear division at Los Alamos, giving Teller authority over 25 scientists.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Related Words

• cashier