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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

story.

An account of real or fictional events.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈstɔː.ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈstɔ.ɹi/General-American
  1. An account of real or fictional events.

    The book tells the story of two roommates.
  2. A lie, fiction.

    You’ve been telling stories again, haven’t you?
  3. A soap opera.

    US · colloquial
    What will she do without being able to watch her stories?
  4. History.

    obsolete
  5. A sequence of events, or a situation, such as might be related in an account.

    What's the story with him?
    I tried it again; same story, no error message, nothing happened.
  6. 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.

    capitalized · sometimes
  7. Ellipsis of user story.

    abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weyd- Proto-Indo-European *-tōr Proto-Indo-European *wéydtōr Proto-Hellenic *wístōr Ancient Greek ῐ̔́στωρ (hĭ́stōr) Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *-eyéti Proto-Indo-European *-esyéti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Ancient Greek -έω (-éō) Ancient Greek ῐ̔στορέω (hĭstoréō) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek ῐ̔στορῐ́ᾱ (hĭstorĭ́ā)bor. Latin historiader. Old French estoire Old French estoriebor. Middle English storie English story From Middle English storie, storye, from Anglo-Norman estorie by aphesis, from Latin historia, from Ancient Greek ῐ̔στορῐ́ᾱ (hĭstorĭ́ā, “learning through research”). Doublet of history and storey.

verb/ˈstɔː.ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈstɔ.ɹi/General-American
  1. To tell as a story; to relate or narrate about.

    transitive
  2. To post a story (chronological collection of pictures or short videos) on an application or website.

    ambitransitive · capitalized · sometimes
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weyd- Proto-Indo-European *-tōr Proto-Indo-European *wéydtōr Proto-Hellenic *wístōr Ancient Greek ῐ̔́στωρ (hĭ́stōr) Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *-eyéti Proto-Indo-European *-esyéti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Ancient Greek -έω (-éō) Ancient Greek ῐ̔στορέω (hĭstoréō) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek ῐ̔στορῐ́ᾱ (hĭstorĭ́ā)bor. Latin historiader. Old French estoire Old French estoriebor. Middle English storie English story From Middle English storie, storye, from Anglo-Norman estorie by aphesis, from Latin historia, from Ancient Greek ῐ̔στορῐ́ᾱ (hĭstorĭ́ā, “learning through research”). Doublet of history and storey.

intj/ˈstɔː.ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈstɔ.ɹi/General-American
  1. Used as a greeting, short for what's the story?

    Ireland · idiomatic
Where this word comes from

Alternative form of what's the story (“how are you?”)

noun/ˈstɔː.ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈstɔ.ɹi/General-American
  1. Alternative spelling of storey.

    Philippines · US · alt-of · alternative
    Our shop was on the fourth story of the building, so we had to install an elevator.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.