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:
The bank fixed the error and gave him a deposit slip that read: “Correction, teller debited wrong account.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
My mother, Ann, worked first as a bank teller and then became the bank’s office-supplies buyer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
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
“Please, Christopher, don’t tell me you’d believe a fortune teller over me! They make their money from stupid little lies, and from idiots who believe them. Thankfully, griffins are immune.”
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
“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
Sabrina, your character in “The Paper” wants to be the managing editor of the Toledo Truth Teller, but she’s really all about the clickbait.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 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
A few months after the press conference, Teller, wounded at being shunned by former friends and colleagues over his continued bellyaching, finally attempted to set the record straight in an article for Science.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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
Weavers and bank tellers feared for their livelihoods at the time, but the Industrial Revolution led to significantly more hiring in the textile sector, and banks increased employment after ATMs were introduced.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
In the same way that air stewards are there for your safety, above and beyond serving you tea and coffee, bank tellers are there as frontline protection.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2025
Questions from South Korean bank tellers, whom they meet on field trips to open bank accounts, often terrify defectors.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
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.
