# unreliable narrator

> English word · Noun · IPA /(ˌ)ʌnɹɪˌlaɪəbl nəˈɹeɪtə/

## Definitions
1. A narrating character or storyteller in a literary or other artistic work (such as a film, novel, play, or song) who provides conflicting, inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise questionable information to the audience or reader.

## Etymology
Apparently coined by the U.S. literary critic Wayne Clayson Booth (1921–2005) in The Rhetoric of Fiction (1961): see the quotation.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/unreliable-narrator