Auteur
//oʊˈtɝ// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A creative artist, especially a film director, seen as having a specific, recognisable artistic vision, and who is seen as the single or preeminent ‘author’ of their works.
"The libretto was a piece of hack work from a Parisian scenario factory run by an enterprising auteur of sorts named Eugene Scribe."
- 2 a filmmaker who has a personal style and keeps creative control over his or her works wordnet
Verb
- 1 To work as an auteur.
Example
More examples"The libretto was a piece of hack work from a Parisian scenario factory run by an enterprising auteur of sorts named Eugene Scribe."
Etymology
Borrowed from French auteur (“author”). Popularised by François Truffaut in the 1954 essay “Une certaine tendance du cinéma français” (“A certain tendency in French cinema”) in the influential film journal Cahiers du Cinéma as the phrase “la politique des Auteurs”. Doublet of author.
Related phrases
More for "auteur"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.