teller
noun
a person or thing that tells, relates, or communicates; narrator.
teller
1 American
[tel-er]
/ ˈtɛl ər /
noun
-
tellers
plural
-
a person or thing that tells, relates, or communicates; narrator.
Grandpa was a great teller of tall, tall tales.
-
a person employed in a bank to receive or pay out money over the counter.
-
a person who tells, counts, or enumerates, as one appointed to count votes in a legislative body.
Teller
2
American
[tel-er]
/ ˈtɛl ər /
noun
teller
1
British
/ ˈtɛlə /
noun
-
another name for cashier 1
-
a person appointed to count votes in a legislative body, assembly, etc
-
a person who tells; narrator
Teller
2
British
/ ˈtɛlə /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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
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:
She and Mark met at a local bank where she worked for years as a teller.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Parton said she made it up after discovering a bank teller had a crush on her husband.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
You could presumably use the fortune teller thing from “The Twilight Zone,” where you put a nickel in and a little slip of paper comes out.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
You may need a Nobel Prize-winning mathematician and a fortune teller to ensure that they each end up with an equal amount.
From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026
Surely he was trying to understand the trail of blood and his encounter with the ghostly bank teller.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
“Sometimes I’ll refer to myself as the Chief Truth Teller, just so I can be really candid.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026
Although farmers in Riverside County should be able to turn to other companies to rent their honeybees for pollination needs, Teller anticipates downstream effects for bee removal customers.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
“It’s just amazing, the community support,” Teller said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
Oscar nominee Colman Domingo plays the singer's father Joe Jackson in the film, which also stars Nia Long as mother Katherine Jackson, and Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller as entertainment lawyer John Branca.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2026
“I neither can nor will do so,” Oppenheimer told Teller.
From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin
Fashion designer Donatella Versace said: "The world has lost one of the kindest and most generous of souls, the greatest of story tellers and a true legend of music."
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
In the main lounge, cats like Fruitcake and Seer’s lookalike kitten brother, Oracle, surrounded us as we created paper fortune tellers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
Then scammers typically pile on pressure, adding voices claiming to be attorneys, courtroom clerks or bank tellers -- a cast of fictitious characters in a chaotic, urgent-sounding call.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
They’re lighting rods reshaped as truth tellers, none bigger than the one at St. John’s.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
She walked to one of the tellers and removed her checkbook and picked up a pen.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
Definitions 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.
