story

Multiple Entries:
  story    storey  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
story1

▶noun (pl. stories)

• 1 an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment.

  ■ a storyline.

• 2 an account of past events, experiences, etc.

  ■ an item of news.

  ■ informal the facts about a particular situation: what's the story on this man?

• 3 informal a lie.

• 4 the commercial prospects or circumstances of a particular company: profitable businesses with solid stories.

– phrases
the same old story a bad situation that is tediously familiar.
the story goes it is said.
it's the story of one's life one has experienced a particular misfortune too often.
to cut (or N. Amer. make) a long story short used to end an account of events quickly.

– origin ME: shortening of Anglo-Norman Fr. estorie, from L. historia (see history).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
story2

▶noun N. Amer. variant spelling of storey.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
storey /ˈstɔːri/ (N. Amer. also story)

▶noun (pl. storeys or stories) a part of a building comprising all the rooms that are on the same level.

– derivatives
-storeyed (N. Amer. also -storied) adjective.

– origin ME: shortening of L. historia ‘history’, a special use in Anglo-Latin, perh. orig. denoting a tier of painted windows or sculptures representing a historical subject.