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

I’ve never felt my femininity to be particularly close at hand, and certainly on “Pure Heroine,” I don’t think there’s any gender attached to that narrator.

From Los Angeles Times

The judges said: "A road trip chronicle, a book about sickness, a basketball novel, a family saga, and a story about how we say goodbye, with a ridiculously relatable narrator."

From BBC

“Listeners who find a voice they like will listen to books they hadn’t considered before because they want that narrator to tell them a story.”

From Los Angeles Times

And yet, still, it swings and it moves, because the narrator is also moving forward: “It was so long ago,” she sings.

From Salon

The narrator watches a slave owner beat and hang a Black man who stole a pencil so that James could write something.

From Salon

Related Words

• author 
• chronicler www.thesaurus.com
• novelist 
• writer