# just-so story

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˌd͡ʒʌstˈsəʊ ˌstɔːɹi/

## Definitions
1. A story which supposedly explains the beginning or early development of a current state of affairs; a myth, a pourquoi story.
2. A story, especially one for children, featuring animals as characters.
3. An untestable explanation for something, such as a form of behaviour, a biological trait, or a cultural practice.

## Etymology
PIE word
 *swé
From just so (“(almost) exactly or precisely like something”, adjective) + story, referring to the series of short stories called Just So Stories (collected in book form in 1902) by the English writer Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) which described how various animals acquired their distinctive characteristics, such as how the leopard got its spots. According to Kipling, the stories were so titled because they were intended to put his daughter Josephine (“Effie”) to sleep, “and you were not allowed to alter those by one single little word. They had to be told just so; or Effie would wake up and put back the missing sentence.”

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/just-so-story