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Literature vs Story - What's the difference?

literature | story |

As nouns the difference between literature and story

is that literature is the body of all written works while story is a sequence of real or fictional events; or, an account of such a sequence.

As a verb story is

to tell as a story; to relate or narrate about.

literature

English

(wikipedia literature) (Literature) (Literature) (Literature)

Alternative forms

* literatuer (obsolete)

Noun

(en-noun)
  • The body of all written works.
  • The collected creative writing of a nation, people, group or culture.
  • All the papers, treatises etc. published in academic journals on a particular subject.
  • *
  • The obvious question to ask at this point is: ‘Why posit the existence of a set of Thematic Relations (THEME, AGENT, INSTRUMENT, etc.) distinct from constituent structure relations?? The answer given in the relevant literature is that a variety of linguistic phenomena can be accounted for in a more principled way in terms of Thematic Functions than in terms of constituent structure relations.
  • Written fiction of a high standard.
  • However, even “literary” science fiction rarely qualifies as literature , because it treats characters as sets of traits rather than as fully realized human beings with unique life stories. —Adam Cadre, 2008

    Meronyms

    * See also

    Anagrams

    * *

    story

    English

    Alternative forms

    * storie (obsolete), storey

    Noun

    (stories)
  • A sequence of real or fictional events; or, an account of such a sequence.
  • * Ed. Rev.
  • Venice, with its unique city and its impressive story
  • * Sir W. Temple
  • The four great monarchies make the subject of ancient story .
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed. They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Travels and travails , passage=Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.}}
  • A lie.
  • (chiefly, US) A floor or level of a building; a storey.
  • * 1900 , , (The House Behind the Cedars) , chapter I:
  • The lower story of the market-house was open on all four of its sides to the public square.
  • (US, colloquial, usually pluralized) A soap opera.
  • (obsolete) History.
  • * 1644 , (John Milton), (Aeropagitica) :
  • who is so unread or so uncatechis'd in story , that hath not heard of many sects refusing books as a hindrance, and preserving their doctrine unmixt for many ages, only by unwritt'n traditions.
  • A sequence of events, or a situation, such as might be related in an account.
  • Usage notes

    * (soap opera) Popularized in the 1950s, when soap operas were often billed as "continuing stories", the term "story" to describe a soap opera fell into disuse by the 21st century and is now used chiefly among older people and in rural areas. Other English-speaking countries used the term at its zenith as a "loaned" word from the United States.

    Synonyms

    * (account) tome * (lie) See * (floor) floor, level * (soap opera) soap opera, serial * narrative

    Derived terms

    * Banbury story of a cock and a bull * bedtime story * chain story * cock-and-bull story * cover story * end of story * fish story * ghost story * horror story * just-so story * likely story * love story * my stories * shaggy-dog story * short short story * short story * sob story * storiation * story editor * storybook * storyline * story of my life * storyteller * storytelling * success story * tall story * to cut a long story short * war story

    Verb

  • To tell as a story; to relate or narrate about.
  • * Shakespeare
  • How worthy he is I will leave to appear hereafter, rather than story him in his own hearing.
  • * Bishop Wilkins
  • It is storied of the brazen colossus in Rhodes, that it was seventy cubits high.

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