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Literature vocabulary · Genres and Forms

Short story

Meaning in literature, with examples

/ˌʃɔːt ˈstɔːri/nounCore term

In literature, short story means: A piece of prose fiction that can be read in one sitting, usually focusing on a few characters and a single main event or moment.

In Turkish: öykü, hikaye, kısa öykü

How it is used

A key form in creative writing classes, magazines and literary prizes. Writers publish short stories in magazines and collect them in a short story collection. Chekhov, Poe and Alice Munro are often named as masters of the form; in Turkish, Sait Faik and Sabahattin Ali.

Example sentences

  1. For next week, read the short story and note how the ending changes your view of the father.

  2. Her second book is a collection of twelve short stories set in Istanbul.

Common collocations

  • short story collection
  • write a short story
  • short story writer
  • publish a short story
  • novelA long story written in prose that describes imaginary people and events, usually long enough to fill a whole book and to develop characters in detail.
  • novellaA work of prose fiction that is longer than a short story but shorter than a novel, usually focused on one main conflict.
  • fictionStories, such as novels and short stories, that describe imaginary events and people rather than real ones.
  • plotThe series of connected events in a story and the way the writer arranges them, especially how one event causes another.

More terms: Genres and Forms

Practise with graded reading

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