English Dictionary

STORY (storied)

Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

IPA (US): 

Irregular inflected form: storied  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation

 Dictionary entry overview: What does story mean? 

STORY (noun)
  The noun STORY has 6 senses:

1. 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 programplay

2. a piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related eventsplay

3. a structure consisting of a room or set of rooms at a single position along a vertical scaleplay

4. a record or narrative description of past eventsplay

5. a short account of the newsplay

6. a trivial lieplay

  Familiarity information: STORY used as a noun is common.


 Dictionary entry details 


STORY (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

narration; narrative; story; tale

Context example:

Disney's stories entertain adults as well as children

Hypernyms ("story" is a kind of...):

content; message; subject matter; substance (what a communication that is about something is about)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "story"):

tearjerker (an excessively sentimental narrative)

tall tale (an improbable (unusual or incredible or fanciful) story)

folk tale; folktale (a tale circulated by word of mouth among the common folk)

sob story; sob stuff (a sentimental story (or drama) of personal distress; designed to arouse sympathy)

fairy story; fairy tale; fairytale (a story about fairies; told to amuse children)

nursery rhyme (a tale in rhymed verse for children)

Instance hyponyms:

Canterbury Tales (an uncompleted series of tales written after 1387 by Geoffrey Chaucer)


Sense 2

Meaning:

A piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

he writes stories for the magazines

Hypernyms ("story" is a kind of...):

fiction (a literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact)

Meronyms (parts of "story"):

climax; culmination (the decisive moment in a novel or play)

anticlimax; bathos (a change from a serious subject to a disappointing one)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "story"):

fable; legend (a story about mythical or supernatural beings or events)

plot (the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc.)

parable ((New Testament) any of the stories told by Jesus to convey his religious message)

myth (a traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people)

allegory; apologue; fable; parable (a short moral story (often with animal characters))

short story (a prose narrative shorter than a novel)

love story; romance (a story dealing with love)

mystery; mystery story; whodunit (a story about a crime (usually murder) presented as a novel or play or movie)

adventure story; heroic tale (a story of an adventure)


Sense 3

Meaning:

A structure consisting of a room or set of rooms at a single position along a vertical scale

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

floor; level; storey; story

Context example:

what level is the office on?

Hypernyms ("story" is a kind of...):

construction; structure (a thing constructed; a complex entity constructed of many parts)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "story"):

first floor; ground floor; ground level (the floor of a building that is at or nearest to the level of the ground around the building)

attic; garret; loft (floor consisting of open space at the top of a house just below roof; often used for storage)

loft (floor consisting of a large unpartitioned space over a factory or warehouse or other commercial space)

entresol; mezzanine; mezzanine floor (intermediate floor just above the ground floor)

basement; cellar (the lowermost portion of a structure partly or wholly below ground level; often used for storage)

Holonyms ("story" is a part of...):

building; edifice (a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place)


Sense 4

Meaning:

A record or narrative description of past events

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

account; chronicle; history; story

Context example:

the story of exposure to lead

Hypernyms ("story" is a kind of...):

record (anything (such as a document or a phonograph record or a photograph) providing permanent evidence of or information about past events)

Domain category:

history (the discipline that records and interprets past events involving human beings)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "story"):

case history (detailed record of the background of a person or group under study or treatment)

recital (a detailed account or description of something)

biography; life; life history; life story (an account of the series of events making up a person's life)

annals; chronological record (a chronological account of events in successive years)

historical document; historical paper; historical record (writing having historical value (as opposed to fiction or myth etc.))

etymology (a history of a word)

ancient history (a history of the ancient world)


Sense 5

Meaning:

A short account of the news

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

account; news report; report; story; write up

Context example:

the account of his speech that was given on the evening news made the governor furious

Hypernyms ("story" is a kind of...):

news (information reported in a newspaper or news magazine)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "story"):

newsletter; newssheet (report or open letter giving informal or confidential news of interest to a special group)

bulletin (a brief report (especially an official statement issued for immediate publication or broadcast))

communique; despatch; dispatch (an official report (usually sent in haste))

urban legend (a story that appears mysteriously and spreads spontaneously in various forms and is usually false; contains elements of humor or horror and is popularly believed to be true)

exclusive; scoop (a news report that is reported first by one news organization)


Sense 6

Meaning:

A trivial lie

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

fib; story; tale; taradiddle; tarradiddle

Context example:

how can I stop my child from telling stories?

Hypernyms ("story" is a kind of...):

lie; prevarication (a statement that deviates from or perverts the truth)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "story"):

cock-and-bull story; fairy story; fairy tale; fairytale; song and dance (an interesting but highly implausible story; often told as an excuse)


 Context examples 


What story belonged to this disaster?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"And what became of them?" asked Dorothy, who had been greatly interested in the story.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

And here may well end the story of Buck.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

No, I don't, for there was Mr. Morris telling us his stories, and Arthur never told any, and yet— My dear, I am somewhat previous.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And when you used to tell the stories?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

My point in telling you this story is that there are always unforeseen glitches when you order with Mercury retrograde, and the problem is, you never know what they will be.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

And that’s the story of the Musgrave Ritual, Watson.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

While white fat stories energy, brown fat burns it in a process known as ‘thermogenesis’.

(Study in mice suggests drug to turn fat ‘brown’ could help fight obesity, University of Cambridge)

He told me the whole story.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

But I paused when I reflected on the story that I had to tell.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"What goes around comes around." (English proverb)

"Walking slowly, even the donkey will reach Lhasa." (Bhutanese proverb)

"He who walks slowly arrives first." (Arabic proverb)

"Don't judge the dog by its fur." (Danish proverb)



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