Story I Extra Examples Film Told ˈstɔːri Events

• a tragic love story
• adventure/detective stories
• a bedtime story
• shall i tell you a story?

story

1. a description of events and people that the writer or speaker has invented in order to entertain people
• SEE ALSO detective story
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/detective-story
• a tragic love story
• adventure/detective stories
• a bedtime story
• Shall I tell you a story?
• He read the children a story.
• She writes poems and stories for children.
• a story about time travel
• The book tells the story of a man who leads a double life.
• What are the key events in the story?

Extra Examples

• I always read the children a bedtime story.
• a collection of stories by modern writers
• The story is set in India in the 1930s.
• The story opens with a man hiding from the police under a woman's skirt.
• The motives of the hero become clearer as the story unfolds.
• My dad sometimes read me a story at bedtime.
• The book contains stories from all over the world.
• Who was the story written by?
• The play tells the story of a young woman called Rosa.
• The simple moral of the story is that dreams will come true if you work hard.
• The story ended tragically.
2. the series of events in a book, film, play, etc.
• SYNONYM plot
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/plot_2
• Her novels always have the same basic story.
• The screenplay sticks to the original story.
• The character's central story arc involves a difficult choice between love and duty.

Extra Examples

• The film lacks a coherent story.
• The film is the rags-to-riches story of a country girl who becomes a famous singer.
• The film tells the improbable story of a monkey that becomes a politician.
3. an account of past events or of how something has developed
• The film is based on a true story.
• to recount/relate a story
• He told us the story of his life.
• the story of the Beatles
• the story of the building of the bridge
• Every piece of art has an interesting story behind it.

Extra Examples

• the epic story of a family's escape from war
• the familiar story of a star who turns to drink and drugs
• The story of jazz is the story of modern America.
• The real story is much more interesting than the film version.
• There are different versions of her story.
4. an account, often spoken, of what happened to somebody or of how something happened
• SEE ALSO cock and bull story
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/cock-and-bull-story
• The police didn't believe her story.
• I suspected he hadn't told us the whole story.
• It was many years before the full story was made public.
• The students were asked to share their stories.
• We must stick to our story about the accident.
• We all hear stories about young people leaving the countryside.
• It's a story of courage.
• I can't decide until I've heard both sides of the story.
• Many years later I returned to Africa but that's another story (= I am not going to talk about it now).

Extra Examples

• ‘How come you've only got one shoe on?’ ‘It's a long story.’
• A story was going around that the factory was in line for closure.
• According to Rachel's version of the story, they threw the key in the river.
• At first he denied everything, but then he changed his story and said it was an accident.
• She told the police a false story about being attacked.
• Stories abound of vandalism and looting.
• There is one popular story in the town of a man-eating cat that lives in the forest.
• We had difficulty in piecing together the fragments of her story.
• We swapped stories about our worst teachers.
• lurid stories of politicians' sexual adventures
• scare stories about the harmful effects of the vaccination
• the story of his arrest
• He's been spreading malicious stories about you.
• His life was a sorry story of betrayal and rejection.
• The moral of this story is that you should never take things for granted.
• The official story was that the singer had broken his arm falling in the shower.
• The teacher punished me without listening to my side of the story.
• This story illustrates the dangers of living on credit.
• What's the story on the trial?
• All of them had an interesting story to tell.
• Answers can take any form from personal stories to poems.
5. a report in a newspaper, magazine or news broadcast
• SEE ALSO cover story (1)
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/cover-story#coverstory_sng_1
• a front-page story
• Now for a summary of tonight's main news stories.
• Let's check the top stories right now.
• the two biggest stories of the day
• He was covering the story for the ‘Glasgow Herald’.

Extra Examples

• We'll have more on this breaking story as developments come in to us.
• The story broke in January.
• The New York Times broke the story and others picked it up.
• We will continue to follow this story and bring you the latest developments.
• The magazine chose the peace process as its cover story.
• The magazine gives the inside story of life in a rock band.
• The biggest story of the day was the signing of the peace agreement.
• National Geographic ran a feature story on dinosaurs.
• More than one correspondent filed a story about the incident.
• He's covering the story in Gaza for CNN.
• Full story on page 3.
• Every newspaper carried the story.
• And now back to our top story tonight…
• This interview may be the biggest story of his career.
• No newspaper would publish the story.
• Le Monde ran the story on the front page.
6. something that somebody says which is not true
• She knew the child had been telling stories again.
7. a level of a building; a floor
8. used to show that you do not believe what somebody has said
• You just found it lying in the street? A likely story!
• He said he'd met Rihanna. A likely story.
9. used when you are saying that you will get to the point of what you are saying quickly, without including all the details
• To cut a long story short, we didn’t get home until 3 in the morning!
• Anyway, long story short: we had this argument and I haven't seen him since.
10. what usually happens
• It's the same old story of a badly managed project with inadequate funding.
11. to tell somebody a story or make an excuse that is not true
12. used to describe something that people are saying although it may not be correct
• She never saw him again—or so the story goes.
• The story goes that this castle was founded by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.
13. to give some information that is different from what you expect or have been told
• These drugs are widely believed to be effective medications. The data, however, tell a different story.
14. to explain itself, without needing any further explanation or comment
• Her face told its own story.
15. when you say that’s the story of my life about a bad experience you have had, you mean you have had many similar experiences
• Another missed opportunity—that’s the story of my life!
• Out of work with no money—that's the story of my life.

Word Origin

• Middle English (denoting a historical account or representation): shortening of Anglo-Norman French estorie, from Latin historia from Greek historia ‘finding out, narrative, history’, from histōr ‘learned, wise man’, from an Indo-European root shared by wit ‘have knowledge’.