Collocations for "story"
Common phrases and expressions where native English speakers use the word "story" in context.
WordReference English Collocations © 2025
story
ⓘMost examples are given in US English. We have labeled exceptions as UK.n
- a [true, romantic, sad, short, funny] story
- a [bedtime, children's, kids'] story
- told a [strong, convincing, weak] story
- [a tall, an unbelievable, an unlikely] story
- a likely story!
- [that's, it's] a long story
- (give me) the [full, complete] story
- can you [read, tell] me a story?
- [want, am going] to tell you a story
- anyway, to [cut, make] a long story short
- [write, publish, post] a story about
- [make up, come up with, invent] a story
- stop telling stories!
- the story [began, started, commenced] in [1890]
- the story began in [ancient, Victorian] times
- this is our story
- this is the story of
- the story of [Jack and the Beanstalk, two boys, how we met]
- the story behind the [making, star] of
- or so the story goes
- the story goes that
- the building has [five] stories
- on the [third] story (of)
- read a story book (to)
- story time
'story' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
a nose for sth
- abrupt
- action
- adapt
- age
- alive
- aloud
- amusing
- aspect
- base
- bear
- before
- begin
- beginning
- behind
- believe
- blood
- blow
- bogus
- book
- boy
- break
- buy
- capture
- charming
- cheeky
- chiefly
- chill
- chilling
- chunk
- circle
- climax
- cloth
- coming
- comment
- complete
- complexion
- conclusion
- confirm
- confuse
- conquer
- corny
- cover
- crap
- create
- creative
- credit
- creepy
- currency
- current