story

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See also: Story

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has articles on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈstɔː.ɹi/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈstɔɹ.i/
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɔːɹi

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English storie, storye, from Anglo-Norman estorie, from Latin historia, from Ancient Greek ἱστορίᾱ (historíā, “learning through research”), from ἱστορέω (historéō, “to research, inquire (and) record”), from ἵστωρ (hístōr, “the knowing, wise one”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, know”). Doublet of history and storey.

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

story (plural stories)

  1. A sequence of real or fictional events; or, an account of such a sequence.
    Synonym: tome
    • 1673, William Temple, An Essay upon the Advancement of Trade in Ireland
      ...it must be exploded for fabulous, with other relics of ancient story...
    • June 1861, Edinburgh Review, The Kingdom of Italy
      Venice, with its unique city and its impressive story...
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:
      The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed. They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.
    • 2006 Feb. 17, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 4:
      So, what happened?
      It's quite a long story actually...
      Really? Don't worry about it then.
    • 2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55:
      Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.
    The book tells the story of two roommates.
  2. A lie, fiction.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:lie
    You’ve been telling stories again, haven’t you?
  3. (US, colloquial, usually pluralized) A soap opera.
    Synonym: serial
    What will she do without being able to watch her stories?
    • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things
      He stood on the doorstep for a minute, listening for sounds inside the house — a radio, a TV tuned to one of the stories […]
  4. (obsolete) History.
    • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica:
      […] who is so unread or so uncatechis'd in story, that hath not heard of many sects refusing books as a hindrance, and preserving their doctrine unmixt for many ages, only by unwritt'n traditions.
  5. A sequence of events, or a situation, such as might be related in an account.
    Synonym: narrative
    What's the story with him?
    I tried it again; same story, no error message, nothing happened.
    The images it captured help tell a story of extreme loss: 25 percent of its ice and four of its 19 glaciers have disappeared since 1957.
  6. (social media, sometimes capitalized) A chronological collection of pictures or short videos published by a user on an application or website that is typically only available for a short period.
    • 2015 July 14, Aisha Gani, “Mecca worshippers stream their stories live on Snapchat”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      Worshippers in Mecca are streaming their stories live on Snapchat, opening up the Saudi city to non-Muslims online.
    • 2016 August 2, Mike Isaac, “Instagram Takes a Page From Snapchat, and Takes Aim at It, Too”, in The New York Times‎[2], ISSN 0362-4331:
      People can make stories public or private, and can choose if they want only a subsection of their followers to view them.
    • 2016 August 12, Hannah Jane Parkinson, “Instagram Stories: who cares about your commute or cleansing routine?”, in The Guardian‎[3]:
      I have come across a few (OK, two) Stories that have made me laugh. And when that happens, the medium frustrates even more with its fleetingness. But here’s hoping the Instagram Stories on my feed improve as time goes by. The End.
Usage notes[edit]
  • (soap opera): Popularized in the 1950s, when soap operas were often billed as "continuing stories", the term "story" to describe a soap opera fell into disuse by the 21st century and is now used chiefly among older people and in rural areas. Other English-speaking countries used the term at its zenith as a "loaned" word from the United States.
Derived terms[edit]
terms derived from story
Descendants[edit]
  • → Welsh: stori
  • → Persian: استوری‎ (estori)
  • → Portuguese: estória
  • → Sranan Tongo: tori
Translations[edit]
lie — see lie

Verb[edit]

story (third-person singular simple present stories, present participle storying, simple past and past participle storied)

  1. To tell as a story; to relate or narrate about.

Etymology 2[edit]

Noun[edit]

story (plural stories)

  1. (chiefly US) Alternative spelling of storey.
    Our shop was on the fourth story of the building, so we had to install an elevator.

Anagrams[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from Old French estoree, past participle of estorer. Alternatively, the same word as storie.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈstɔriː(ə)/, /ˈstɔːriː(ə)/

Noun[edit]

story (plural storyes) (rare)

  1. A level of a building.
  2. A line of paddles on a ship.
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Old French estorie, estoire.

Verb[edit]

story

  1. Alternative form of storie
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