Meaning & use
narrator
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Meanings
nouncountable
The voice or character that tells the story in a book, film or play.
Grammar: A countable noun: the narrator of the novel.
Patterns
- narrator of something
- first-person narrator
The narrator of the novel is a young nurse.
An unreliable narrator makes readers doubt the story.
The film uses an older man as narrator, looking back on his childhood.
nouncountable
A person who speaks the commentary in a documentary, radio show or audiobook.
Grammar: Refers to a real speaker, often a professional.
Patterns
- narrator of something
The documentary's narrator has a deep, calm voice.
She works as an audiobook narrator.
The narrator explained each stage of the experiment.
Word forms
| plural | narrators |
|---|
Common combinations
- unreliable narrator
- The unreliable narrator hides key facts from the reader.
- first-person narrator
- A first-person narrator tells the story as I.
- omniscient narrator
- The omniscient narrator knows every character's thoughts.
- audiobook narrator
- The audiobook narrator gave each character a different voice.
- the narrator's voice
- The narrator's voice is warm and humorous.
Synonyms and how they differ
- storyteller
- Storyteller is warmer and more general, and can mean someone who tells tales aloud, while narrator is the formal role in a text or program.
- commentator
- Commentator suggests explaining or judging events as they happen, such as in sports, whereas a narrator tells a story.
- voice-over
- Voice-over names the recorded voice in a film or advert, and is a technique more than a role.
- raconteur
- Raconteur is a literary word for a person who tells stories skillfully in company.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: narrator or author? narrator or narrative?
narrator vs author
The author wrote the book, but the narrator is the voice inside it, and they are not always the same person.
narrator vs narrative
A narrative is the story itself, while the narrator is the one telling it.
Practice
In many novels, the person telling the story is not the author but a created voice. This voice is the ___.
Choose one answer.
The narrator is the voice that tells the story. The author writes it, an editor improves it and a critic reviews it, which are the tempting wrong options.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “narrator”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.