teller
noun
a person or thing that tells, relates, or communicates; narrator.
teller
1 American
[tel-er]
/ ˈtɛl ər /
noun
-
tellers
plural
-
a person or thing that tells, relates, or communicates; narrator.
Grandpa was a great teller of tall, tall tales.
-
a person employed in a bank to receive or pay out money over the counter.
-
a person who tells, counts, or enumerates, as one appointed to count votes in a legislative body.
Teller
2
American
[tel-er]
/ ˈtɛl ər /
noun
teller
1
British
/ ˈtɛlə /
noun
-
another name for cashier 1
-
a person appointed to count votes in a legislative body, assembly, etc
-
a person who tells; narrator
Teller
2
British
/ ˈtɛlə /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
At the time, Simpson was often working seven days a week as a bank teller and home health aide, earning under $20 an hour at each job.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
You could presumably use the fortune teller thing from “The Twilight Zone,” where you put a nickel in and a little slip of paper comes out.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
Ubraniak plays not only Sam but also Clay, the manager of Primary Trust, the bank that takes a chance on Kenneth, offering him a teller slot.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
You may need a Nobel Prize-winning mathematician and a fortune teller to predict the returns over the lifetime of your grandchildren to ensure that they each end up with an equal amount.
From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026
This conferred instant credibility upon his preferred role as designated truth teller, poised to expose the chaotic reality beneath all uplifting accounts of the Revolution.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
“Sometimes I’ll refer to myself as the Chief Truth Teller, just so I can be really candid.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026
“It’s just amazing, the community support,” Teller said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
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
Yet this view fails to reckon with the persuasive powers of Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller, which played the crucial role in creating momentum for the H-bomb.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
In the main lounge, cats like Fruitcake and Seer’s lookalike kitten brother, Oracle, surrounded us as we created paper fortune tellers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
Then scammers typically pile on pressure, adding voices claiming to be attorneys, courtroom clerks or bank tellers -- a cast of fictitious characters in a chaotic, urgent-sounding call.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
You encountered one of the many honest, diligent bank tellers.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2025
As often happens, truth tellers weren’t really in short supply.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2025
But a strange and catholic selection of citizens tiptoed to the chapel door and peered in and went away—lawyers and laborers and clerks and bank tellers, most of them past middle age.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
