Meanings
plural unreliable narrators
- literatureA narrating character or storyteller in a story (such as a film, novel, play, or song) who provides conflicting, inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise questionable information to the audience or reader.First known use 1961
[F]or the rest of the book [Sebastian] Faulks gets to indulge in the unreliable-narrator game of cunning ellipses and selective, gradual revelation.
2007 September 16, Terrence Rafferty, “Cantabrigian psycho [review of Engleby]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Jun 20225 more examples
[page 158] For practical criticism probably the most important of these kinds of distance is that between the fallible or unreliable narrator and the implied author who carries the reader with him in judging the narrator. […] [page 159] Unreliable narrators thus differ markedly depending on how far and in what direction they depart from the author's norms; […]
1961, Wayne C[layson] Booth, “Types of Narration”, in The Rhetoric of Fiction, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press, published 1968, →OCLC, part I (Artistic Purity and the Rhetoric of Fiction), pages 158 and 159The Priest also places a moral barrier between himself and his tale by establishing himself as an "unreliable narrator" capable of deception and irony. Thus, through his habit of speaking equivocally, he can disavow responsibility for his frequently provocative words.
1969 September, Charles A. Watkins, “Chaucer’s Sweete Preest”, in Earl R. Wasserman et al., editors, ELH [English Literary History], volume 36, number 3, Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins Press, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 463As a young and inexperienced observer, Meadows represents the unreliable narrator whose views are sometimes wrong; but he learns from his mistakes and grows in perceptiveness and wisdom as the novel progresses.
1998, “Afterword”, in William Gilmore Simms, edited by John Caldwell Guilds, Helen Halsey or The Swamp State of Conelachita: A Tale of the Borders (Selected Fiction of William Gilmore Simms), Arkansas edition, Fayetteville, Ark.: University of Arkansas Press, →ISBN, page 137The unreliable narrator demonstrates how the spirit of the times colours the work of storytellers, and how they in turn help to shape that spirit. We can find unreliable narrators in the books of Agatha Christie and William Faulkner, Vladimir Nabokov and Mordecai Richler – and hundreds of other writers. It's one of the emblematic literary devices of the century.
1999, Robert Fulford, “The Cracked Mirror of Modernity”, in The Triumph of Narrative: Storytelling in the Age of Mass Culture (CBC Massey Lectures), Toronto, Ont.: House of Anansi Press, →ISBN, page 97[…] Patrick, for all his brutal truth telling, is an unreliable narrator. You see, he is mad—so mad, he probably committed the murders in his head. Which still makes him one sick yuppie.
2000 April 17, Richard Corliss, “A Yuppie’s Killer Instinct [review of American Psycho]”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Nov 2010
Origin
Apparently coined by the U.S. literary critic Wayne Clayson Booth (1921–2005) in The Rhetoric of Fiction (1961): see the quotation.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 不可靠的敘事者 /不可靠的叙事者
- 不可靠的敘事者 /不可靠的叙事者 (bùkěkàodexùshìzhě)narrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Dutch onbetrouwbare verteller, onbetrouwbare vertelster
- onbetrouwbare vertellernarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
- onbetrouwbare vertelsternarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Finnish epäluotettava kertoja
- epäluotettava kertojanarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
French narrateur douteux, narratrice douteuse
- narrateur douteuxnarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
- narratrice douteusenarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
- narrateur incertainnarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
- narratrice incertainenarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
- narrateur non fiablenarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
- narratrice non fiablenarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
German unzuverlässiger Erzähler, unzuverlässige Erzählerin
- unzuverlässiger Erzählernarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
- unzuverlässige Erzählerinnarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Greek αναξιόπιστος αφηγητής
- αναξιόπιστος αφηγητής (anaxiópistos afigitís)narrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Indonesian pengisah lancung
- pengisah lancungnarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Italian narratore inaffidabile, narratrice inaffidabile
- narratore inaffidabilenarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
- narratrice inaffidabilenarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Japanese 信頼できない語り手
- 信頼できない語り手 (shin rai dekinai ka tarite)narrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Korean 믿을 수 없는 화자
- 믿을 수 없는 화자 (mideul su eomneun hwaja)narrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Polish but see nieufny narrator
- but see nieufny narratornarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Portuguese narrador não confiável, narradora não confiável
- narrador não confiávelnarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
- narradora não confiávelnarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Russian ненадёжный расска́зчик, ненадёжный расска́зчица
- ненадёжный расска́зчик (nenadjóžnyj rasskázčik)narrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
- ненадёжный расска́зчица (nenadjóžnyj rasskázčica)narrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Spanish narrador sospechoso, narradora sospechoso
- narrador sospechosonarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
- narradora sospechosonarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Thai ผู้บรรยายเรื่องผู้ไม่น่าเชื่อถือ
- ผู้บรรยายเรื่องผู้ไม่น่าเชื่อถือnarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Turkish güvenilmez anlatıcı
- güvenilmez anlatıcınarrating character or storyteller who provides questionable information to the audience or reader
Cite this entry
unreliable narrator. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unreliable%20narrator
“unreliable narrator.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unreliable%20narrator. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unreliable narrator,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unreliable%20narrator.
Source: unreliable narrator on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.