Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To destroy.
  • noun A building; an edifice.
  • noun A stage or floor of a building; hence, a subdivision of the height of a house; a set of rooms on the same level or floor.
  • To tell or describe in historical relation; make the subject of a narrative, tale, or legend; relate.
  • To ornament with sculptured or painted scenes from history or legend. Compare storied.
  • To relate; narrate.
  • noun A connected account or narration, oral or written, of events of the past; history.
  • noun An account of an event or incident; a relation; a recital: as, stories of bravery.
  • noun In lit., a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse; a tale, written in a more or less imaginative style, of that which has happened or is supposed to have happened; specifically, a fictitious tale, shorter and less elaborate than a novel; a short romance; a folk-tale.
  • noun The facts or events in a given case considered in their sequence, whether related or not; the experience or career of an individual: as, the story of a foundling; his is a sad story.
  • noun An anecdote: as, a speech abounding in good stories.
  • noun A report; an account; a statement; anything told: often used slightingly: as, according to his story, he did wonders.
  • noun A falsehood; a lie; a fib.
  • noun The plot or intrigue of a novel or drama: as, many persons read a novel, or are interested in a play, only for the story.
  • noun A scene from history, legend, or romance, depicted by means of painting, sculpture, needlework, or other art of design.
  • noun Synonyms Relation, Narration, etc. (see account); record, chronicle, annals.
  • noun Anecdote, Story. See anecdote.
  • noun Tale, fiction, fable, tradition, legend.
  • noun Memoir, life, biography.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To tell in historical relation; to make the subject of a story; to narrate or describe in story.
  • noun A set of rooms on the same floor or level; a floor, or the space between two floors. Also, a horizontal division of a building's exterior considered architecturally, which need not correspond exactly with the stories within.
  • noun (Arch.) a vertical post used to support a floor or superincumbent wall.
  • noun A narration or recital of that which has occurred; a description of past events; a history; a statement; a record.
  • noun The relation of an incident or minor event; a short narrative; a tale; especially, a fictitious narrative less elaborate than a novel; a short romance.
  • noun colloq. A euphemism or child's word for “a lie;” a fib.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A sequence of real or fictional causal events; or, an account of such a sequence.
  • noun A lie.
  • noun A floor or level of a building; a storey.
  • noun US, colloquial, usually pluralized A soap opera.
  • noun obsolete History.
  • noun A sequence of events, or a situation, such as might be related in an account.
  • verb To tell as a story; to relate or narrate about.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program
  • noun a piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events
  • noun a trivial lie
  • noun a record or narrative description of past events
  • noun a structure consisting of a room or set of rooms at a single position along a vertical scale
  • noun a short account of the news

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman estorie, from Latin historia, from Ancient Greek ἱστορία (historia, "history"). Compare history and storey ("floor of a building").

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Examples

  • The cold truth of crisis management is that \ "telling your side of the story\" only works when you have a story to tell.

    Eric Dezenhall: A Salvage Job in Tiger's America 2009

  • It made me realise what sort of short story I enjoy: a story with a lot of worldbuilding where information needed to understand 'what's going on' comes out in the course of the plot; a story which has 'real' characters with 'real' issues other than to solve what the heck is going on *in just this story*.

    synopsis writing mikandra 2008

  • You will also find St. Godric of Finchale in the calendar of saints, and they are one and the same, the story of his very long life come down to us as he told it in his old age to Reginald of Durham -- although _this _story is not in there.

    Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2003

  • You will also find St. Godric of Finchale in the calendar of saints, and they are one and the same, the story of his very long life come down to us as he told it in his old age to Reginald of Durham -- although _this _story is not in there.

    Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2003

  • When a story is rewritten to give a new interest to old facts it is called a _rewrite story_; when it is rewritten to include new facts or developments, it is called a _follow-up_,

    Newspaper Reporting and Correspondence A Manual for Reporters, Correspondents, and Students of Newspaper Writing Grant Milnor Hyde

  • A _feature story_ is either a story that is thus played up or a story that is written for some other reason than news value, such as human interest.

    Newspaper Reporting and Correspondence A Manual for Reporters, Correspondents, and Students of Newspaper Writing Grant Milnor Hyde

  • _Golden arm_ (story) Clemens _How to tell a story_

    The Book of Hallowe'en Ruth Edna Kelley

  • But just as soon as any part of the story becomes more interesting than the fact that there was a fire, the story is no longer featureless -- it is a fire story with a feature, or, for the purposes of our study, _a feature fire story_.

    Newspaper Reporting and Correspondence A Manual for Reporters, Correspondents, and Students of Newspaper Writing Grant Milnor Hyde

  • If you will bear in mind that a playlet is only as good as its plot, that a plot is a _story_ and that you must give to your story, as has been said, "A completeness -- a kind of universal dovetailedness, a sort of general oneness," you will have little difficulty in observing the one playlet rule that should never be broken -- Unity of action.

    Writing for Vaudeville Brett Page

  • A third student told the third part, beginning with _the next morning_ and ending with the close of the story, _Now this is a true story_.

    A Study of Fairy Tales Laura F. Kready

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