success

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
11
Words With Friends
14
Letters
7
Pronunciation
/səkˈsɛs/

Definition of success

13 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)The achievement of one's aim or goal.
    “His third attempt to pass the entrance exam was a success.”
    “a glowing success”
    “Actually there was recently a talented young female bassoonist who gave up a promising career on that sturdy instrument, not to do something more feminine but to take up bullfighting. This is Patricia Hayes of San Angelo, Texas, who has had spectacular success in the arenas of Mexico and Portugal. Unfortunately she is not America's only matadoress.”
    “Republicans are launching a new nonprofit group to highlight the legislative successes of its vulnerable incumbents with a $2 million advertising blitz touting the work of five vulnerable GOP senators to protect Medicare.”
See all 13 definitions

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)The achievement of one's aim or goal.
    “His third attempt to pass the entrance exam was a success.”
    “a glowing success”
    “Actually there was recently a talented young female bassoonist who gave up a promising career on that sturdy instrument, not to do something more feminine but to take up bullfighting. This is Patricia Hayes of San Angelo, Texas, who has had spectacular success in the arenas of Mexico and Portugal. Unfortunately she is not America's only matadoress.”
    “Republicans are launching a new nonprofit group to highlight the legislative successes of its vulnerable incumbents with a $2 million advertising blitz touting the work of five vulnerable GOP senators to protect Medicare.”
  2. (countable, uncountable)Financial profitability.
    “Don't let success go to your head.”
    “Instead Nokia decided better to stick with what they knew worked - good, solid, reliable mobile phones of the kind that had brought them success until then.”
  3. (countable, uncountable)One who, or that which, achieves assumed goals.
    “Scholastically, he was a success.”
    “The new range of toys has been a resounding success.”
    “There have been other drugs since reticulose that I became aware of the successes of, some even able to claim "cure," even turning people from HIV-positive to negative.”
    “There have been some surprising successes, though - the LTM's [London Transport Museum's] online gift shop is currently selling 75% more products during lockdown than it was in the same period last year.”
    “Freightliner says trials with a new lower-emission fuel for its diesel fleet have been a success, raising its credentials as a supporter of reducing greenhouse gases.”
  4. (countable, uncountable)The fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect, or fame.
    “She is country music's most recent success.”
  5. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Something which happens as a consequence; the outcome or result.
    “I suppose them as at the beginning of no meane endeavour, not a little alter'd and mov'd inwardly in their mindes: Some with doubt of what will be the successe, others with fear of what will be the censure; some with hope, others with confidence of what they have to speake.”

name

  1. A suburb of Perth, Western Australia.
  2. A town in Clay County, Arkansas.
  3. A ghost town in Jasper County, Mississippi.
  4. An unincorporated community in Texas County, Missouri.
  5. An unincorporated township in Coos County, New Hampshire.
  6. An unincorporated community in Meigs County, Ohio.
  7. A village in Saskatchewan, Canada.
  8. A surname.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin successus, from succēdō (“succeed”), from sub- (“next to”) + cēdō (“go, move”). Partly displaced native Old English spēd, whence Modern English speed.

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