n. 1
A lie, fiction.
You’ve been telling stories again, haven’t you?
n. 2
An account of real or fictional events.
The book tells the story of two roommates.
n. 3
A soap opera.
What will she do without being able to watch her stories?
n. 4
A sequence of events, or a situation, such as might be related in an account.
What's the story with him?

Related words

Word family: storyette
Phrases: cock-and-bull story short short story tall story fairy story life story fish story shaggy dog story cover story

Forms

Plural: stories → narratives, tales, narrations, novels…

Choose the right word

or Story?

A story is the telling of some series of connected incidents or events, whether real or fictitious, in prose or verse, orally or in writing; or the series of incidents or events thus related may be termed a story. In children's talk, a story is a common euphemism for a falsehood.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

novel The novel has been translated into many languages.
narrative The mystery contains more dialogue than narrative.
tale Sami has been living a fairy-tale life with Layla.
narration There are different points of view in the narration.
myth There's a myth that Edison invented the light bulb.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
story		rising
novel		rising
narrative		rising
tale		rising
narration		rising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: lie¹, fib¹
4 letters: flat¹, plot¹, tale¹, myth¹, reel¹, yarn¹, tome¹, flam¹
5 letters: level², floor¹, novel², fable²
6 letters: report², record², legend², serial³, canard²
7 letters: account², fiction², romance², recital³, parable³, whopper², untruth²
8 letters: incident³, relation³, anecdote³, allegory⁴, entresol
9 letters: statement², tradition³, narrative³, invention³, narration³, falsehood², mezzanine³, mendacity⁴
10 letters: taradiddle
11 letters: fabrication⁴
13 letters: prevarication⁵

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (level² = 2 syllables).