Other forms: stories
A story is a telling of what happened, start to finish, real or made up. The one read at bedtime, the one an uncle tells every Christmas, the one a friend begins with you'll never guess what happened.
In a newspaper or on the news, a story is one report: the front-page story, we're covering that story tonight. Said to a child, don't tell stories means don't lie. There is a plain use for someone's version of events — her story never changed — and a run of set phrases built on it: to cut a long story short, that's another story, end of story. In American English a story is also a floor of a building, as in a ten-story block, which British English spells storey.
1nounstoryAn account of events, real or invented, told from beginning to end.~92%
“He told the whole story again over dinner.”
synonyms: tale, account
2nounreportA report in a newspaper or on the news.~2%
“The story ran on every front page that morning.”
3nounlieA lie or an invented excuse.~2%
“Don't tell me stories — I saw you.”
4nounversionSomeone's version of what happened.~2%
“Her story matched the neighbour's exactly.”
5nounfloorA floor of a building. American spelling; British English uses storey.~2%
“They live in a four-story building on the corner.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 15 sentences found in the wild and placed 15 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
story is an account.
Also accepted in games: tale
Story and history are the same word, split in two. Both go back to Latin historia, and behind that Ancient Greek historia, learning through research — knowledge you got by asking and finding out. English took it twice: once through Anglo-Norman estorie, worn down to story, and once straight from the Latin as history. Storey, the floor of a building, is a third child of the same parent.
Proto-Indo-European
*weyd-
Middle English
storie
English, today
story
From Middle English storie. From Middle English storie, storye, from Anglo-Norman estorie by aphesis, from Latin historia, from Ancient Greek ῐ̔στορῐ́ᾱ (“learning through research”). a doublet of history and storey.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA