raconteur
Americannoun
-
raconteurs
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of raconteur
1820–30; < French, equivalent to racont ( er ) to tell ( Old French r ( e ) - re- + aconter to tell, account ) + -eur -eur
Explanation
Raconteurs are gifted storytellers, able to spin amusing tales from everyday life. Who is the biggest raconteur in your group? He or she's the one who always tells the best stories — or jumps in when another storyteller isn't being vivid enough. Do you make going to the store to buy groceries a fascinating experience? Do you offer witty observations of the people you pass on the street? If so, you're a raconteur, someone who can regale his or her listeners with riveting stories, usually funny, sometimes dramatic. Raconteur comes from the French word "raconter," meaning "to recount." Note its "eur" ending, signaling its French origin.
Vocabulary lists containing raconteur
National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 2
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English Words Derived from French, List 9
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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:
He was an engaging, funny and self-deprecating raconteur, ready with the quotable quip and the off-the-record gossip, which always assured him of an audience.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Like the raconteur at the table, Mr. Winchester is masterly but almost too fluent.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
Pierre Schoeman tells a story from his youth in South Africa, a natural-born raconteur in adulthood speaking of the adventurous spirit of his 13-year-old self.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2025
“I became a chutney cosmopolite,” he wrote, “and a raconteur of relish recipes.”
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2025
Gregarious by nature, Hall proved to be a skillful raconteur with a caustic Kiwi wit.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
All seem to use the word differently than in its usual application to novelists, playwrights and raconteurs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
The artists who made them have been reduced here, in what may be this show’s only true insult, into mere raconteurs of women’s lives.
From New York Times ● Jun. 1, 2023
Barry Humphries was described as one of the greatest raconteurs and stand-up comedians of his age.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2023
The characters were raconteurs who couldn’t help mythologizing their youth, their city and their relationships.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 17, 2022
There are, to be sure, stand-up comedians, shaggy- dog raconteurs, consummate essayists, and authors of mystery novels who can build up curiosity and suspense and then resolve it all with a sudden revelation.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
