succeed
suc·ceed/səkˈsiːd/verb
succeed is spelled S-U-C-C-E-E-D, 2 syllables: suc·ceed. The wrong spelling people search most is suceed: about 480 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Succeed is a verb meaning “To follow something in sequence or time”.
How many letters and syllables are in succeed?
| Letters | 7: S-U-C-C-E-E-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: suc·ceed |
| In writing | 19 times per million words; the 4,365th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, suceed, about 480 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell succeed?
Succeed is spelled S-U-C-C-E-E-D. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for succeed in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is succeed?
Succeed appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,365th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce succeed?
- /səkˈsiːd/
Succeed has 2 syllables, split suc·ceed in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-succeed.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of succeed
- succeeds present, singular, he/she/it
- succeeding participle, present
- succeeded participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does succeed mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To follow something in sequence or time.
Autumn succeeds summer.
- 2
To replace or supplant someone in order vis-à-vis an office, position, or title.
The king's eldest son succeeds his father on the throne.
- 3
To come after or follow; to be subsequent or consequent; (often with to).
- 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).
Following the death of his mother, he succeeded to the throne.
- 5
To ascend the throne after the removal or death of the occupant.
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.
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.
- 7
To prosper or attain success and beneficial results in general.
voted most likely to succeed
- 8
datedTo turn out, fare, do (well or ill).
- 9
Misconstruction of secede.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Succeed in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | succéder , réussir, avoir du succès |
| German | nachfolgen , erfolgreich sein, Erfolg haben, gelingen, geraten |
| Portuguese | seguir , ter/obter sucesso/êxito, conseguir , suceder |
| Spanish | suceder, sucesionar, ser el sucesor de, seguirle en la sucesión a, subseguir , tener éxito |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does succeed come 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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).