narrator

American  

[nar-ey-ter, na-rey‑, nar-uh‑] / ˈnær eɪ tər, næˈreɪ‑, ˈnær ə‑ /

Or narrater

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.

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narrator British  

/ 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

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narrator Cultural  

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.

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Etymology

Origin of narrator

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

Example Sentences

The narrator of “10:04” dreams of a book that, “like a poem, is neither fiction nor nonfiction, but a flickering between them.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026

In the opening episode, the narrator travels to Rhode Island to interview Thomas for a magazine article—a big deal, because Thomas is 90 and unlikely to consent to this kind of personal intrusion again.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026

Cinematographer Isaac Bauman’s eye never stops moving — an independent narrator telling a different story than the one starring our heroine.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026

The glory and riches available, as narrator Liev Schreiber tells us, are not quite those of the NFL, MLB or NBA.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026

“Sundays, holidays, vacation time,” says the narrator, “we must be ready every day, all the time, to do the right thing if the atomic bomb explodes.”

From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin

Related Words

• author
• chronicler
• novelist
• writer