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unreliable narrator

a storyteller whose account cannot be fully trusted

In Literary English

In more detail

1. (noun) a character in a story whose account of events cannot be fully trusted because they are mistaken, biased, mentally unstable, or deliberately lying

2. (noun) the narrative technique used by a writer when the narrator is not trustworthy

Examples

• 1. The protagonist in the novel is an unreliable narrator who misremembers key events from his childhood.
• 2. The author uses an unreliable narrator to make readers question what really happened in the crime.

How to use unreliable narrator

This is a fixed literary term used in narratology and creative writing to describe both a character trait and a deliberate narrative strategy. It appears in formal academic contexts when analyzing literature, as well as in creative writing and storytelling discussions. The term emphasizes that readers cannot take the narrator's account at face value and must interpret events critically.

Register: formal

Common phrases

• unreliable narrator device
• use an unreliable narrator
• create an unreliable narrator
• unreliable narrator in fiction
• unreliable narrator technique
• trust the unreliable narrator

Synonyms

untrustworthy narrator · dishonest narrator · biased narrator · fallible narrator

Opposites

reliable narrator · trustworthy narrator · omniscient narrator

A common mistake

Learners sometimes confuse an unreliable narrator with a narrator who simply makes factual errors; unreliable narrators are typically unreliable by design or character, not by accident, and this ambiguity about truthfulness is often central to the work's meaning.

Nearby in Literary English

vernacular, magical realism, modernism, anthology, aphorism, ballad

Keep going

How to remember the words you read · Spaced repetition, explained