Meaning of the word story

Common usesEdit

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Film, television and radioEdit

MusicEdit

PlacesEdit

PeopleEdit

Other usesEdit

See alsoEdit

The cold truth of crisis management is that «telling your side of the story» only works when you have a story to tell. ❋ Unknown (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*. ❋ 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. ❋ Unknown (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_, ❋ Grant Milnor Hyde (N/A)

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. ❋ Grant Milnor Hyde (N/A)

_Golden arm_ (story) Clemens _How to tell a story_ ❋ Ruth Edna Kelley (N/A)

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_. ❋ Grant Milnor Hyde (N/A)

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. ❋ Brett Page (N/A)

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_. ❋ Laura F. Kready (N/A)

All that has been attempted here is such a story — _story, not history_ — of the romance and adventure in Canada’s nation building as will give the casual reader knowledge of the country’s past, and how that past led along a trail of great heroism to the destiny of a ❋ Unknown (1903)

Originally these were, according to him, probably regarded as actual swans, the feathery robe being a later symbolic euphemism, though I would incidentally remark that the whole of the story _as a story_ depends upon the seizure of a separate dress involving the capture of the swan bride. ❋ Joseph Jacobs (1885)

He always had a _story_ to tell, and a story involves beginning, middle, and end — in short, a framework of some description. ❋ Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1871)

But I set myself the little task of making a _picturesque story_, rising in every chapter, with characters true to nature, but whom the story should express more than they should express themselves by dialogue. ❋ John Forster (1844)

I could not resist so facile and moderate demand: so scribbled out another, omitting sundry things, such as the witch story, about half the forest scene (which is too leisurely for _story_), and transposing that damn’d soliloquy about England getting drunk, which like its reciter stupidly stood alone nothing prevenient, or antevenient, and cleared away a good deal besides … ❋ Charles Lamb (1804)

(Justin Bieber Love story): Chapter bad boys fall for good girls * a JB love story* ep 4 bad boys fall for good girls * a jb love story* ep 2 me and my siter singing when the last teardrop falls ❋ Unknown (2010)

_running story_ (as the running story of a football game), or may be made up of several parts, written by one or more reporters. ❋ Grant Milnor Hyde (N/A)

_several times; _ to run through _rapidly_, though not hurriedly; to run through them as a story until it stands out in your mind as _one simple connected, story_. ❋ Unknown (1897)

the authors create a fantasy/sci-fi world in which that is primary and the story centers around the conflict the characters find in *the story*, the romance secondary or even background. ❋ Unknown (2009)

‘ [story bud]? ye [stallin] over to me [gaff] ‘ ❋ Bud (2003)

[Caeden]: Lets read a STORY
Jake:[0.0]
[Marcus]:what did you just say?????? ❋ BJ Neal (2022)

«story,?»
«[not much], [whats the craic] with you?» ❋ Krn (2005)

[I just] don’t [feel like] going to the [party], it’s not a story ❋ Shaz100 (2014)

[What’s the story] on [the police] [tape] around that car? ❋ Talk2me-JCH2 (2021)

[That girl] Storie, is a [beautiful person]. ❋ StorieO (2010)

Bubba, run to the [Piggly Wiggly] and pick [mamma] up some smokes. I don’t want to miss [my stories]. ❋ King Festus (2005)

«Ethel, I have to [hang up the phone] now, [my stories] are coming on!»
«Thanks for reminding me, Gertrude, [my story‘s] on too!» ❋ Popeyes Chicken (2006)

«You couldn’t [have been] there. [Are you] storying me?» ❋ Goddessofgoalies (2006)

Storie [deserves the world].
[Wait], Storie is [my world]. ❋ Cantw8tomeetagurlLikeU (2020)

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘story.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

• Albanian: histori (sq) f, tregim (sq) m
• Amharic: ተረት (tärät)
• Arabic: قِصَّة‎ f (qiṣṣa), حِكَايَة‎ f (ḥikāya)

  Egyptian Arabic: حكاية‎ f (ḥikāya)

  Hijazi Arabic: قصة‎ f (giṣṣa), حكاية‎ f (ḥikāya)

• Armenian: պատմություն (hy) (patmutʿyun)
• Assamese: সাধু (xadhu)
• Azerbaijani: hekayə (az)
• Baluchi: قصو‎ (qisso), قصہ‎ (qissa), دستاں‎ (dastá̃)
• Bashkir: хикәйә (xikäyä)
• Basque: istorio
• Bavarian: Gschicht
• Belarusian: апавяда́нне n (apavjadánnje), гісто́рыя (be) f (históryja)
• Bengali: গল্প (bn) (gôlpô)
• Bulgarian: ра́зказ (bg) m (rázkaz), исто́рия (bg) f (istórija), при́казка (bg) f (príkazka)
• Burmese: ပုံ (my) (pum), ဝတ္ထု (my) (wathtu.)
• Catalan: història (ca) f, relat (ca) m
• Central Dusun: sorita
• Chechen: дийцар (diicar)
• Chichewa: nkhani (real events, like a news story), nthano (personal or fictional events)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 故事 (gu³ si⁶)

  Dungan: щёфә (xi͡ofə), гўҗер (gwži͡ər), гўҗир (gwžir)

  Mandarin: 故事 (zh) (gùshi)

  Min Nan: 故事 (zh-min-nan) (kò͘-sū)

• Czech: příběh (cs) m
• Danish: historie, fortælling (da) c, beretning (da) c
• Dena’ina: sukdu
• Dutch: verhaal (nl), vertelling (nl) f, vertelsel (nl) n, geschiedenis (nl) f
• Esperanto: rakonto (eo)
• Estonian: lugu
• Ewe: ŋutinya
• Finnish: tarina (fi), kertomus (fi), juttu (fi), selostus (fi)
• French: histoire (fr) f, conte (fr) m

  Old French: estoire f, conte m, dit m

• Galician: historia (gl) f, conto (gl) m
• Georgian: მოთხრობა (motxroba)
• German: Erzählung (de) f, Geschichte (de) f
• Gothic: 𐍃𐍀𐌹𐌻𐌻 n (spill)
• Greek: ιστορία (el) f (istoría)

  Ancient: λόγος m (lógos), μῦθος m (mûthos)

• Guaraní: mombe’u
• Gujarati: વાર્તા (gu) (vārtā)
• Haitian Creole: istwa
• Hebrew: סיפור סִפּוּר‎ (he) m (sipúr)
• Hindi: कहानी (hi) f (kahānī)
• Hungarian: történet (hu), elbeszélés (hu)
• Icelandic: saga (is)
• Ido: rakonto (imaginary), naraco (narrative)
• Indonesian: cerita (id), kisah (id)
• Interlingua: conto
• Irish: scéal (ga)
• Istriot: stuoria f
• Italian: racconto (it) m, storia (it) f, aneddoto (it) m, vicenda (it) f
• Japanese: 物語 (ja) (ものがたり, monogatari), 小説 (ja) (しょうせつ, shōsetsu), 話 (ja) (はなし, hanashi), ストーリー (ja) (sutōrī)
• Javanese: crita (jv)
• Kachchi: આખાણી (ākhāṇī)
• Kaingang: kãme
• Kazakh: әңгіме (kk) (äñgıme), хикая (xikaä)
• Khmer: រឿង (km) (rɨəng), និទាន (km) (nitiən), តំណាល (km) (tɑmnaal)
• Kikuyu: rũgano class 11
• Konkani: क्हाणी (khāṇī)
• Korean: 이야기 (ko) (iyagi), 소설(小說) (ko) (soseol), 스토리 (ko) (seutori)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: چیڕۆک‎ (ckb) (çîrrok)

  Northern Kurdish: çîrok (ku), qiset (ku), qise (ku), hîkaye (ku)

• Kyrgyz: аңгеме (ky) (aŋgeme), жомок (ky) (jomok)
• Lao: ກະຖາ (lo) (ka thā), ເລື່ອງ (lư̄ang), ນິທານ (ni thān), ນິຍາຍ (ni nyāi), ອາຂະຍານ (ʼā kha nyān), ເລື່ອງລາວ (lư̄ang lāo)
• Latin: fābula (la) f
• Latvian: stāsts (lv) m, stāstījums m
• Limburgish: verhaol (li) n
• Lithuanian: pasakojimas m, istorija (lt) f
• Low German: Geschichten f pl (in plural)
• Macedonian: приказна f (prikazna)
• Malay: cerita (ms), kisah
• Malayalam: കഥ (ml) (katha)
• Maltese: storja f, rakkont m
• Maranao: iringa
• Marathi: गोष्ट (goṣṭa)
• Mi’kmaq: agnutmaqan inan
• Middle English: storie, historie
• Mirandese: stória
• Mohawk: okáːraʼ
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: өгүүлэл (mn) (ögüülel)

• Navajo: bahaneʼ
• Ngazidja Comorian: haɓari class 9/10, kiswa class 9/10
• Northern Sami: muitalus
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: historie (no) m

• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: притъча f (pritŭča)

  Glagolitic: ⱂⱃⰹⱅⱏⱍⰰ f (pritŭča)

• Old English: spell n
• Old Javanese: kaṇḍa
• Oriya: କାହାଣୀ (or) (kahaṇi)
• Pashto: قصه‎ (ps) f (qesá), داستان‎ (ps) m (dāstãn), دوڼه‎ f (doṇá), نکل‎ (ps) m (nákәl), حکايت‎ (ps) m (hekāyát)
• Persian: داستان‎ (fa) (dâstân), قصه‎ (fa) (qesse), حکایت‎ (fa) (hekâyat), نقل‎ (fa) (naql)
• Plautdietsch: Jeschicht f
• Polish: opowieść (pl) f, historia (pl) f
• Portuguese: estória (pt) f, história (pt) f, conto (pt) m
• Romani: paramìsi f
• Romanian: istorie (ro), poveste (ro)
• Russian: расска́з (ru) m (rasskáz), по́весть (ru) f (póvestʹ), исто́рия (ru) f (istórija)
• Samoan: tala
• Sanskrit: कथा (sa) f (kathā)
• Saterland Frisian: Ferhaal
• Scottish Gaelic: sgeulachd f, sgeul m, naidheachd f
• Semai: cerite
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: при̑ча f, расказ m, по̏ве̄ст f, по̏вије̄ст f

  Roman: prȋča (sh) f, raskaz m, pȍvēst (sh) f, pȍvijēst (sh) f

• Sicilian: cuntu (scn) m
• Slovak: príbeh m
• Slovene: zgodba (sl) f
• Spanish: relato (es) m, cuento (es) m, crónica (es) f, historia (es) f
• Swahili: hadithi (sw), ngano (sw), khabari class 9/10, habari (sw) class 9/10
• Swedish: historia (sv) c, berättelse (sv) n
• Tagalog: kuwento, istorya
• Tajik: ҳикоя (hikoya), нақл (tg) (naql), баён (tg) (bayon), қисса (tg) (qissa), достон (tg) (doston)
• Talysh:

  Asalemi: نقل‎ (nağl), داستان‎ (dâstân)

• Tatar: әкият (tt) (äkiyat)
• Telugu: కత (te) (kata), కథ (te) (katha)
• Thai: เรื่องราว (th) (rʉ̂ʉang-raao), นิทาน (th) (ní-taan), อาขยาน (th) (aa-kà-yaan), เรื่อง (th) (rʉ̂ʉang)
• Tibetan: སྒྲུང (sgrung)
• Tigrinya: ጽውጽዋይ (ṣəwṣəway)
• Turkish: öykü (tr), hikâye (tr)
• Turkmen: hekaýa
• Ugaritic: 𐎎𐎒𐎔𐎗 (mspr)
• Ukrainian: о́повідь f (ópovidʹ), ро́зповідь f (rózpovidʹ), істо́рія (uk) f (istórija), оповіда́ння n (opovidánnja)
• Urdu: کہانی‎ f (kahāni), حکایت‎ (ur) f (hikāyat)
• Uyghur: ھېكايە‎ (hëkaye)
• Uzbek: hikoya (uz)
• Venetian: istoria f
• Vietnamese: chuyện (vi), cuốn chuyện, quyển chuyện, tự sự (vi)
• Volapük: konot (vo)
• Welsh: chwedl (cy) f
• West Frisian: ferhaal, sêge (fy)
• Yiddish: מעשׂה‎ f (mayse, manse), מייַסע‎ f (mayse)
• Zulu: indaba (zu) class 9/10, inganekwane class 9/10