secede
Americanverb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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secedesimple
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secedessimple
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have secededperfect
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has secededperfect
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am secedingprogressive
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are secedingprogressive
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is secedingprogressive
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have been secedingperfect progressive
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has been secedingperfect progressive
Past
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secededsimple
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had secededperfect
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was secedingprogressive
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were secedingprogressive
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had been secedingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of secede
First recorded in 1695–1705, secede is from the Latin word sēcēdere to withdraw. See se-, cede
Explanation
To secede is to go your own way, breaking off ties. Usually, this refers to one part of a country that wants to become independent, like the South during the U.S. Civil War. The Latin word secedere means “go apart” and that's where secede comes from. Don't confuse it with the much more common succeed. Your plan to secede from the state of New Jersey and found a kingdom named Rusty, after your dog, is not likely to succeed.
Vocabulary lists containing secede
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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The American Civil War
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100 SAT words Beginning with "S"
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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.
See Examples For:
The address issue has long been contentious in artsy Carmel-by-the-Sea, where residents once threatened to secede from California if they were forced to number their homes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2026
It’s not that Greenlanders don’t want to secede from Denmark—they just don’t want to become a U.S. state in turn.
From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2025
He was a leader of the Freedom County movement that sought to secede from Snohomish County in the late 1990s.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 17, 2024
With Belgian support, the mineral-rich Katanga province was encouraged by Belgian mining interests to secede, and the white-dominated Force Publique, the Belgian colonial army, revolted.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2024
Maryland, although it did not secede from the Union and join the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War, remained a hotbed of secessionists.
From "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson
If Scotland secedes, the UK itself could be the next to change what it calls itself.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 30, 2016
By a popular referendum attended by some 80 percent of eligible state voters, Maloney’s Texas secedes on April 1, 2013.
From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2013
Q. Will the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans still be eligible to play in the NFL once Texas secedes from the United States?
From Washington Post ● Jan. 20, 2013
It is a countdown to January 9th, the day a referendum is scheduled to decide whether the southern part of this country secedes from the north and becomes its own nation.
From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2010
October 15th.—Bavarian army secedes and joins the Austrians.
From Napoleon's Letters to Josephine by Hall, Henry Foljambe
Fifteen years earlier, civil war had broken out when 11 states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
In December, Israel became the first to recognise Somaliland's independence since it seceded from Somalia in 1991, drawing angry condemnation from the federal government in Mogadishu, even though it has been self-governing for 35 years.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
After a decades-long battle for independence, Eritrea officially seceded from Ethiopia in 1993, leaving the latter landlocked.
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2025
Late 21st-century San Francisco: California has seceded from the United States, and robots serve humans like crypto money launderer Fritz Co, whose Burgers N More is a front.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2025
In 1784 some of those settlers, led by John Sevier, seceded from North Carolina in the hope of creating a fourteenth state, which they named Franklin.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
To pay the soldiers, the seceding government and its president, Jefferson Davis, printed reams of Confederate dollars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
South Sudan is the world's newest nation, after seceding from Sudan in 2011.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2025
“Texas has talked about seceding for a long time,” Ms. Haley said.
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2024
A Latin inscription on the monument cites the Confederacy’s “Lost Cause” rationale for seceding.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 14, 2022
“Secession means the Southerners are breaking away, or seceding, from our present Union of thirty-three states to form their own confederacy of sorts.”
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
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.
