Success

How to spell success

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce success

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does success mean?

1. nounThe achievement of an aim, or a favourable outcome.

Success in a sentence

• The launch was a complete success for the whole team.

• Years of patient saving finally brought her financial success.

Where does success come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin successus, meaning 'an advance' or 'a good result', which was the past participle of succedere, 'to come after, to follow, to go up to'. That verb was built from sub-, here meaning 'up to' or 'after', and cedere, 'to go' or 'to move', the same root that gives English 'proceed', 'recede', and 'cede'. Originally the Latin word simply meant any outcome that 'followed on', whether good or bad, which is why older English texts speak of 'ill success'. By the time it entered English in the sixteenth century the positive sense of a favourable outcome had taken over almost entirely. The double letters are the classic trap: the c and the s sounds are spelled with a doubled c (cc) followed by a doubled s (ss), a pattern inherited straight from the Latin successus.

How the word is built

• suc- (variant of sub-: under/up to)
• cess (from cedere: to go, to move)
• -s