- story
- noun1 account of events/people, true or inventedADJECTIVE▪ true▪ plausible▪ false, made-up▪
She told the police a false story about being attacked.
▪ fictional, real-life▪ untold▪ published▪his first published short story
▪ apocryphal▪ cock and bull, tall (esp. BrE)▪No one would believe such a tall story.
▪ official▪The official story was that the singer had broken his arm falling in the shower.
▪ personal▪ wild▪ convincing▪ compelling, dramatic, exciting, fantastic, fascinating, good, great, interesting, intriguing, nice, touching, wonderful▪ amazing, bizarre, colourful/colorful, crazy (esp. AmE), extraordinary, incredible, outrageous, remarkable, strange▪ inspirational, inspiring▪ amusing, entertaining, feel-good, funny▪ epic▪the epic story of a family's escape from war
▪ complex, elaborate▪ straightforward▪ awful, horrific, horrifying, nasty, shocking, terrible, tragic▪ sorry (esp. BrE)▪His life was a sorry story of betrayal and rejection.
▪ depressing, heart-rending, moving, poignant, sad▪ well-known▪ familiar▪the familiar story of a star who turns to drink and drugs
▪ popular▪There is one popular story in the town of a man-eating cat that lives in the forest.
▪ life, success▪She told them her life story.
▪ coming-of-age, coming-out, rags-to-riches▪The movie is the rags-to-riches story of a country girl who becomes a famous singer.
▪ hard-luck, sob (both disapproving)▪He was boring people with more of his hard-luck stories.
▪She gave me some sob story about losing her credit cards.
▪ coherent▪The movie lacks a coherent story.
▪ entire, full, whole▪I suspected he hadn't told us the whole story.
▪ short▪a collection of short stories
▪ original▪The screenplay sticks to the original story.
▪ back (usually backstory)▪The writers have to create backstories for their characters.
▪ children's▪ classic▪ bedtime▪ adventure, Bible, biblical, crime, detective, fairy (esp. BrE), ghost, horror, love, spy, etc.… OF STORIES▪ collection▪a collection of stories by modern writers
VERB + STORY▪ hear▪ read (sb)▪My dad sometimes read me a story at bedtime.
▪ write▪ narrate, recount, relate, retell, tell (sb)▪ embellish, embroider▪ believe▪The police didn't believe her story.
▪ stick to▪We must stick to our story about the accident.
▪ change▪At first he denied everything, but then he changed his story and said it was an accident.
▪ share (with sb), swap▪We swapped stories about our worst teachers.
▪ spread▪ publishSTORY + VERB▪ circulate, go around, go round (esp. BrE), spread▪A story was going around that the factory was in line for closure.
▪ abound▪Stories abound of vandalism and looting.
▪ emerge▪ begin, open, start▪The story opens with a man hiding from the police.
▪ progress, unfold▪The motives of the hero become clearer as the story unfolds.
▪ end▪ be called sth, be entitled sth, be titled sth (esp. AmE)▪ be set in …▪The story is set in India in the 1930s.
▪ be based on sth▪ concern sth, involve sth, revolve around sth▪ contain sth▪ illustrate sth▪This story illustrates the dangers of living on credit.
STORY + NOUN▪ teller (usually storyteller)▪ telling (usually storytelling)▪ line (usually storyline)▪His novels always have the same basic storyline.
PREPOSITION▪ according to a/the story▪ story about▪a story about time travel
▪ story of▪the story of the Beatles
▪a story of moral redemption
PHRASES▪ a fragment of a/the story, a part of a/the story▪We had difficulty in piecing together the fragments of her story.
▪ the rest of the story▪ but that's another story▪Many years later I returned to Africa—but that's another story (= I am not going to talk about it now).
▪ (that's) a likely story (ironic)▪He said he'd met Madonna. A likely story.
▪ it's a long story▪‘How come you only have one shoe on?’ ‘It's a long story.’
▪ sb's half of the story, sb's side of the story▪The teacher punished me without listening to my side of the story.
▪ tell a different story▪Antidepressants are widely believed to be effective medications. The data, however, tell a different story.
▪ the moral of the story▪The moral of this story is that you should never take things for granted.
▪ the story goes (that … ) (= used to describe what people are saying although it may not be correct)▪She never saw him again—or so the story goes.
▪ the story of my life▪Out of work with no money—that's the story of my life.
▪ to cut a long story short, to make a long story short▪Anyway, to cut a long story short (= not to give all the details), we had this argument and I haven't seen him since.
▪ a version of a story▪According to Rachel's version of the story, they threw the key in the river.
2 report in a newspaper, etc.ADJECTIVE▪ big, huge (esp. AmE), top▪The biggest story of the day was the signing of the peace agreement.
▪And now back to our top story tonight …
▪ exclusive▪ breaking (esp. AmE)▪We'll have more on this breaking story as developments come in to us.
▪ feature (AmE)▪National Geographic ran a feature story on dinosaurs.
▪ main▪ full▪Full story on page 3.
▪ scare▪scare stories about the harmful effects of the vaccination
▪ inside▪The magazine gives the inside story of life in a rock band.
▪ sensational▪ lurid, sordid▪lurid stories of politicians' sexual adventures
▪ cover, front-page, lead▪The magazine chose the peace process as its cover story.
▪ news▪ political▪ media, newspaper, wire (esp. AmE)VERB + STORY▪ file, write▪More than one correspondent filed a story about the incident.
▪ carry, cover, print, publish, report, run▪Every newspaper carried the story.
▪He's covering the story in Gaza for CNN.
▪ follow▪We will continue to follow this story and bring you the latest developments.
▪ break (esp. AmE)▪The New York Times broke the story and others picked it up.
STORY + VERB▪ break (esp. AmE)▪The story broke in January.
PREPOSITION▪ story about, story of▪the story of his arrest
3 (AmE) ⇨ See ↑storey
Collocations dictionary. 2013.
