overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

succeed.

To follow something in sequence or time.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/səkˈsiːd/
  1. To follow something in sequence or time.

    transitive
    Autumn succeeds summer.
  2. To replace or supplant someone in order vis-à-vis an office, position, or title.

    transitive
    The king's eldest son succeeds his father on the throne.
    After a contentious election, Jones succeeded Smith as president of the republic.
  3. To come after or follow; to be subsequent or consequent; (often with to).

    intransitive
  4. To come in the place of another person, thing, or event; to come next in the usual, natural, or prescribed course of things; to follow; hence, to come next in the possession of anything; (often with to).

    intransitive
    Following the death of his mother, he succeeded to the throne.
    So, if the issue of the elder son succeed before the younger, the crown (or: property) falls to me.
  5. To come in the place of another person, thing, or event; to come next in the usual, natural, or prescribed course of things; to follow; hence, to come next in the possession of anything; (often with to). To ascend the throne after the removal or death of the occupant.

    intransitive
    Princess Buttercup succeeded to the throne as queen after King Willoughby died.
  6. To prevail in obtaining an intended objective or accomplishment; to prosper as a result or conclusion of a particular effort.

    intransitive
    The persecution of any righteous practice has never succeeded in the face of history; in fact, it can expedite the collapse of the persecutory regime.
    She succeeded in her efforts to repair the tank.
  7. To prosper or attain success and beneficial results in general.

    intransitive
    voted most likely to succeed
  8. To turn out, fare, do (well or ill).

    dated · intransitive
  9. To support; to prosper; to promote or give success to.

    transitive
  10. To descend, as an estate or an heirloom, in the same family; to devolve; (often with to).

    intransitive
  11. To fall heir to; to inherit.

    obsolete · rare · transitive
  12. To go down or near (with to).

    intransitive · obsolete · rare
Where this word comes from

From Old French succeder, from Latin succedere (“to go under, go from under, come under, approach, follow, take the place of, receive by succession, prosper, be successful”). Partly displaced English speed, of which the original sense “to succeed” only survives in a few fossilized expressions such as Godspeed.

verb/səkˈsiːd/
  1. Misconstruction of secede.

    alt-of · misconstruction
FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

succeed has 7 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

succeed studiosucceed workshello, succeed

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.