Successor

How to spell successor

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce successor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does successor mean?

1. nounA person or thing that follows another, especially one that takes over a position, title, or role.

Successor in a sentence

• The retiring chairman spent a year grooming his successor.

• The board still has not named a successor to the chief executive.

Where does successor come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin successor, meaning 'one who follows after' or 'one who takes the place of another'. It was built on the verb succedere, which combined the prefix sub-, here carrying the sense 'after' or 'next', with cedere, meaning 'to go' or 'to move'; literally, then, a successor is the one who comes next. English took the word in during the 1300s by way of Old French successour, in legal and dynastic contexts about who would inherit a title, estate, or throne. The same cedere root sits inside a whole family of English words such as 'proceed', 'recede', and 'concede', all of which involve some kind of going or moving. The double s in the middle is the spelling trap: the suc- prefix already ends in c, and the cess root begins with another c plus s, so the cluster looks heavier than the ear expects.

How the word is built

• suc- (variant of sub-: after, in place of)
• cess (from cedere: to go, move)
• -or (agent suffix: one who)