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• teller
  teller

  noun

  a person or thing that tells, relates, or communicates; narrator.
• Teller
  Teller

  noun

  Edward, 1908–2003, U.S. physicist, born in Hungary.

teller

¹ American  

[tel-er] / ˈtɛl ər /

noun

1. a person or thing that tells, relates, or communicates; narrator.

   Grandpa was a great teller of tall, tall tales.

2. a person employed in a bank to receive or pay out money over the counter.

3. a person who tells, counts, or enumerates, as one appointed to count votes in a legislative body.

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Teller ² American  

[tel-er] / ˈtɛl ər /

noun

1. Edward, 1908–2003, U.S. physicist, born in Hungary.

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teller ¹ British  

/ ˈtɛlə /

noun

1. another name for cashier 1

2. a person appointed to count votes in a legislative body, assembly, etc

3. a person who tells; narrator

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Teller ² British  

/ ˈtɛlə /

noun

1. Edward. 1908–2003, US nuclear physicist, born in Hungary: a major contributor to the development of the hydrogen bomb (1952)

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Other Word Forms

• tellership
  noun
• underteller
  noun

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

Dealing with a call center or an automated teller might have been exasperating.

From Barron's • Apr. 14, 2026

Bottom line: When you deposit a large cash amount — in this case, a $150,000 inheritance — the teller verifies your identity, records your explanation of the money’s source, and processes the deposit normally.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 26, 2026

Officials in Los Angeles County warned that elderly Asians withdrawing cash from automated teller machines to participate in a Lunar New Year tradition could be vulnerable to robberies.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2026

Shane Greenlee, a 22-year-old bank teller, said he keeps most of his portfolio in tech companies such as Nvidia and the AI infrastructure provider Nebius Group.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 8, 2026

It was one of the two boys who had been waiting with the fortune teller.

From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell

Related Words

• cashier