narrator

or nar·rat·er

[ nar-ey-ter, na-rey‑, nar-uh‑ ]

noun

1. a person who gives an account or tells the story of events, experiences, etc.
2. a person who adds spoken commentary to a film, television program, slide show, etc.

narrator

/ nəˈreɪtə /

noun

1. a person who tells a story or gives an account of something
2. a person who speaks in accompaniment of a film, television programme, etc

narrator

1. A person who tells a story; in literature, the voice that an author takes on to tell a story. This voice can have a personality quite different from the author's. For example, in his story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe makes his narrator a raving lunatic.

Word History and Origins

Origin of narrator¹

First recorded in 1610–20; from Latin narrātor “narrator, historian” narrate ( def ), -or ²( def )

Example Sentences

She’s an empathetic narrator and offers advice throughout about how to ease into things.

From Outside Online

In taking on this narrative task, Prokopios reflects that what he has to share is so outrageous that he fears he “shall earn the reputation of being a narrator of myths and shall be ranked among the tragic poets.”

From Time

After the dissolution of their relationship does not go as she planned, the narrator finds herself no longer tied to New York and moves to Berlin.

From Time

Its narrator, Earl Turner, gloats that “not one of them is beyond our reach.”

From Washington Post

The compelling narrator is one of those captive children, Lex, who, at 15, escaped and freed her siblings and over the ensuing years found poise and sanity in widely varying degrees.

From Washington Post

“You were going to work your way into my marriage and you were going to call its new three-way shape holy” the narrator recounts.

From The Daily Beast

Could you talk a minute about the notion of being an unreliable narrator?

From The Daily Beast

In “Sleigh Ride,” the narrator is painting a scene so perfect that it could be featured on an iconic Currier and Ives print.

From The Daily Beast

The narrator is suggesting that they build a snowman that looks like a minister.

From The Daily Beast

Koenig has not been a sterile, objective narrator; she has openly voiced her biases, concerns, and gut feelings all along.

From The Daily Beast

With such a faculty Balzac could not be, like Edgar Poe, merely a narrator of nightmares.

From Project Gutenberg

For many years they did not furnish any exciting or even interesting matter to this narrator.

From Project Gutenberg

I felt some curiosity as to the interrupted narrative, even in despite of the evident frivolity of the narrator.

From Project Gutenberg

The narrator dwelt on the flirtation lovingly, and at great length, but here we are obliged to curtail it.

From Project Gutenberg

These questions have very much the appearance of having been invented by the narrator for the sake of the answers.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• author
• chronicler
• novelist
• writer