succeed
/səkˈsiːd/
"succeed" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“succeed” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,414 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #4,414
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To follow something in sequence or time.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | succeed |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /səkˈsiːd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #4,414 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “succeed” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for succeed is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /səkˈsiːd/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,414 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for succeed, with forms such as "scuceed", "ssucceed", and "succed". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "success", "succeeded", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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”). The correct English form is succeed, spelled S-U-C-C-E-E-D.
Definition
- 1To follow something in sequence or time.
- 2To replace or supplant someone in order vis-à-vis an office, position, or title.
- 3To come after or follow; to be subsequent or consequent; (often with to).
- 4To 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).
- 5To 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).
- 6To prevail in obtaining an intended objective or accomplishment; to prosper as a result or conclusion of a particular effort.
- 7To prosper or attain success and beneficial results in general.
- 8To turn out, fare, do (well or ill).
- 9To support; to prosper; to promote or give success to.
- 10To descend, as an estate or an heirloom, in the same family; to devolve; (often with to).
- 11To fall heir to; to inherit.
- 12To go down or near (with to).
Etymology
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”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: scuceed,ssucceed,succed,succede,succeedd,suceced,suceed,uscceed
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of succeed - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “succeed”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-U-C-C-E-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /səkˈsiːd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “success” - see the side-by-side comparison. succeed vs success
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.