''raconteur'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''raconteur'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260320113731-00-⌔

raconteur - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

raconteur (plural raconteurs)

• A storyteller, especially a person noted for telling stories with skill and wit.
  • ✤ He was tempted to try the last door—to look into the room of evil fame; but he reflected that this would be indiscreet, since Colonel Capadose handled the brush—as a raconteur —with such freedom. There might be a ghost and there might not; but the Colonel himself, he inclined to think, was the most mystifying figure in the house.¹
  • ✤ It is notoriously possible for the author of a fictitious narrative to become, after a time, unable to distinguish it from a statement of actual facts. There is a case on record in which a learned judge communicated to the Psychical Society in perfect good faith a ghost story, all the principal features of which were proved to be imaginary. They had their origin in his own talent as a distinguished raconteur.²

Verb

raconteur (third-person singular simple present raconteurs, present participle raconteuring, simple past and past participle raconteured)

• To make witty remarks or stories.
  • ✤ The two of them turn to each other and raise an eyebrow each, their signal to slip into alternating raconteuring.³

Etymology

Borrowed from French raconteur.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˌɹæk.ɒnˈtəː/, /ˌɹæk.ɔ̃(n)ˈtəː/
• (US) IPA: /ˌɹæk.ɑnˈtɝ/, /ˌɹæk.ɔ̃(n)ˈtɝ/
• Audio (US):, Audio (US): 🔊 🔊
• Audio (Australian): 🔊

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 1888, Henry James, The Liar: ↩

2. 1905, W. G. Aston, chapter 5, in Shinto: The Way of the Gods, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 79: ↩

3. 2003, Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White ‎${}^{[1]}$, →ISBN, page 155: ↩

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