raconteur

noun

ra·​con·​teur ˌra-ˌkän-ˈtər 

-kən-

: a person who excels in telling anecdotes

Did you know?

Raconteur Has Old French Roots

If you’re a sage of sagas, a bard of ballads, or a pro in prose, you may have lost count of the accounts you’ve recounted. Some might call you a recounter, but as a master of narrative form you may find that recounter lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. Sure, it has a cool story—it traces back to the Latin verb computere, meaning “to count”—but so do many words: compute and computer, count and account, and neither last nor least, raconteur, a singsong title better fit for a whimsical storyteller. English speakers borrowed raconteur from French in the early 19th century.

Examples of raconteur in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

O’Brien, 86, is a gleeful raconteur who has worked as a director in the theater since the 1960s, picking up four Tony Awards along the way, including for Hairspray, and has enough anecdotes to fill at least two memoirs. —Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 6 Apr. 2026

Cornfield draws out those stories like a raconteur teasing information between sips of bourbon. —Madison Bloom, Pitchfork, 31 Mar. 2026

Enrigue is an erudite, charismatic raconteur—the sort who will tell you the most abject story with a wink—and his novel distills a byzantine swirl of historical events through the lives of a handful of very colorful characters. —Carolina A. Miranda, The Atlantic, 5 Mar. 2026

During a 45-minute interview with the Orlando Sentinel, the Gators’ master motivator and raconteur engaged in an illuminating and riveting conversation. —Edgar Thompson, The Orlando Sentinel, 8 Feb. 2026

Word History

Etymology

French, from Middle French, from raconter to tell, from Old French, from re- + aconter, acompter to tell, count — more at account

First Known Use

1819, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for raconteur

• amour
• auteur
• grandeur
• hauteur
• velour
• verdure
• voyeur
• doer
• poor
• poore

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