succédévssuccessWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: succédé is a verb, success is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“succédé” is a verb and “success” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,070
“succédé” frequency rank
#33,478
“success” frequency rank
45548
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature succédé success
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de succéder. Succès, réussite.

Where the eye mixes succédé and success

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. succédé (CVCCVCV) and success (CVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
succédé
7 ch
success

Visual trap between succédé and success

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: succédé is \syk.se.de\ while success is \səkˈsɛs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45548, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

succédé is recorded at frequency rank #12,070, classified as averb, pronounced \syk.se.de\. success is at rank #33,478, tagged as anoun, pronounced \səkˈsɛs\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 45548, this pair ranks #201,900 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of succédé vs success

Shared letters: csu. Private to "succédé": dé. Private to "success": e.

"succédé" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "success" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • success ← scucess · ssuccess · succses · sucecss · sucess · usccess

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "succédé" and "success" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "succédé" is a verb and "success" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "succédé" or "success"?
"succédé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,070 in our French list, against #33,478 for "success". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "succédé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "success" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #201,900 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "succédé" and "success" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "succes vs success". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #201,900 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list