successive
Americanadjective
-
following in order or in uninterrupted sequence; consecutive.
three successive days.
-
following another in a regular sequence.
the second successive day.
-
characterized by or involving succession.
adjective
-
following another without interruption
-
of or involving succession
a successive process
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of successive
1400–50; late Middle English < Medieval Latin successīvus, equivalent to success ( us ), past participle of succēdere to succeed + -īvus -ive
Explanation
Successive is a word for things (or people) that follow each other in time. If three presidents in a row were over sixty, you could say, "Three successive presidents were over sixty." Successive is a word that comes up often when you're looking at the history of something. Back in the 1960s, eight successive Boston Celtics teams won the NBA championship. In school, if you do very well, you could get an A in three successive math classes. Even though successive has the word success in it, it's not necessarily a good thing: you could also miss ten successive free throws.
Vocabulary lists containing successive
Siddhartha
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The Joy Luck Club
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The Thing About Jellyfish
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The rupiah has plummeted, hitting successive record lows and dropping below 18,100 to the dollar this week.
From Barron's • Jun. 14, 2026
With each successive release, Nolan helped train a generation of movie nerds in the virtues of large-format film.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 12, 2026
Somehow, even if they do, there is a successive chain of Agriculture Department inspectors, including at slaughterhouses and things like that, that are going to notice a gaping wound on an animal.
From Slate • Jun. 11, 2026
Daniel Mason splices together different narrative strands to create a single story connecting its successive inhabitants.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 10, 2026
I quote what I said when I was just starting out, and then later on in other places, as I can best remember the general pattern that I used, in successive phases, in those days.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
