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Synonyms

short story

American  

noun

  1. a piece of prose fiction, usually under 10,000 words.

short story British  

noun

  1. a prose narrative of shorter length than the novel, esp one that concentrates on a single theme

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • short-story adjective

Etymology

Origin of short story

First recorded in 1885–90

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The video could be seen as a reference to 88-year-old Sir Anthony's latest project, as he is set to start shooting a film based on a short story by Thomas based in the Welsh countryside.

From BBC • Mar. 23, 2026

The project, based on a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, took 14 years to bring to the screen, but got seven Oscar nominations in 1984.

From Barron's • Mar. 11, 2026

One gets the sense that Miriam’s inner darkness is inseparable from her brilliance, like Georgiana’s birthmark in Hawthorne’s early short story.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026

Sam A. Davis didn’t exactly love Ivan Turgenev’s short story “The Singers,” at first — “honestly, I nodded off a couple times,” he says.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 9, 2026

The bio on his other two books—one based on his grad school dissertation and one short story collection—says, “He lives with his wife and two daughters in the Philadelphia suburbs.”

From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.