story

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An account or recital of an event or a series of events, either true or fictitious, as:
2. n. An account or report regarding the facts of an event or group of events: The witness changed her story under questioning.
3. n. An anecdote: came back from the trip with some good stories.
4. n. A lie: told us a story about the dog eating the cookies.
5. n. A usually fictional prose or verse narrative intended to interest or amuse the hearer or reader; a tale.
6. n. A short story.
7. n. The plot of a narrative or dramatic work.
8. n. A news article or broadcast.
9. n. Something viewed as or providing material for a literary or journalistic treatment: "He was colorful, he was charismatic, he was controversial, he was a good story” ( Terry Ann Knopf).
10. n. The background information regarding something: What's the story on these unpaid bills?
11. n. Romantic legend or tradition: a hero known to us in story.
12. v. To decorate with scenes representing historical or legendary events.
13. v. Archaic To tell as a story.
14. n. A complete horizontal division of a building, constituting the area between two adjacent levels.
15. n. The set of rooms on the same level of a building.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A connected account or narration, oral or written, of events of the past; history.
2. n. An account of an event or incident; a relation; a recital: as, stories of bravery.
3. n. In lit., a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse; a tale, written in a more or less imaginative style, of that which has happened or is supposed to have happened; specifically, a fictitious tale, shorter and less elaborate than a novel; a short romance; a folk-tale.
4. n. The facts or events in a given case considered in their sequence, whether related or not; the experience or career of an individual: as, the story of a foundling; his is a sad story.
5. n. An anecdote: as, a speech abounding in good stories.
6. n. A report; an account; a statement; anything told: often used slightingly: as, according to his story, he did wonders.
7. n. A falsehood; a lie; a fib.
8. n. The plot or intrigue of a novel or drama: as, many persons read a novel, or are interested in a play, only for the story.
9. n. A scene from history, legend, or romance, depicted by means of painting, sculpture, needlework, or other art of design.
10. n. Synonyms Relation, Narration, etc. (see account); record, chronicle, annals.
11. n. Anecdote, Story. See anecdote.
12. n. Tale, fiction, fable, tradition, legend.
13. n. Memoir, life, biography.
14. To tell or describe in historical relation; make the subject of a narrative, tale, or legend; relate.
15. To ornament with sculptured or painted scenes from history or legend. Compare storied.
16. To relate; narrate.
17. n. A building; an edifice.
18. n. A stage or floor of a building; hence, a subdivision of the height of a house; a set of rooms on the same level or floor. A story comprehends the distance from one floor to another: as, a story of nine, twelve, or sixteen feet elevation.
19. To destroy.

Wiktionary

1. n. A sequence of real or fictional causal events; or, an account of such a sequence.
2. n. A lie.
3. n. A floor or level of a building; a storey.
4. n. US, colloquial, usually pluralized A soap opera.
5. n. obsolete History.
6. n. A sequence of events, or a situation, such as might be related in an account.
7. v. To tell as a story; to relate or narrate about.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A set of rooms on the same floor or level; a floor, or the space between two floors. Also, a horizontal division of a building's exterior considered architecturally, which need not correspond exactly with the stories within.
2. n. A narration or recital of that which has occurred; a description of past events; a history; a statement; a record.
3. n. The relation of an incident or minor event; a short narrative; a tale; especially, a fictitious narrative less elaborate than a novel; a short romance.
4. n. colloq. A euphemism or child's word for “a lie;” a fib.
5. v. To tell in historical relation; to make the subject of a story; to narrate or describe in story.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program
2. n. a piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events
3. n. a trivial lie
4. n. a record or narrative description of past events
5. n. a structure consisting of a room or set of rooms at a single position along a vertical scale
6. n. a short account of the news