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
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.
Bets on a second successive hike rose after the release.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
All eyes are on the release of consumer price data due later Wednesday, which could play a key role in whether the bank decides to hike for a second successive meeting on October 28.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
Biological intelligence has consistently lacked a clear institutional home across successive administrations and within the intelligence community, with leadership responsibility shifting from one agency to another without sufficient resources or support.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
Mel Merritt, of the National Autistic Society, said the report shows that successive governments "have failed autistic people".
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
This meant that passengers and crew were trapped on board with successive generations of diseased insects.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
