secede
Americanverb (used without object)
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secedes,
present (3rd person singular)
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seceded,
past participle, past
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seceding
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
secedesimple
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secedessimple
-
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
-
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:
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
In 1896, barely seven years after statehood, some Eastern Washington residents were already looking to secede from their western counterparts.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 4, 2024
Sikh Americans have wide-ranging opinions on whether Sikhs should secede from India.
From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2023
In 1988, inside the roiling Soviet landscape, the enclave’s ethnic Armenian majority chose to secede from one Soviet republic, Azerbaijan, and unite with another, Armenia.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2023
The boxers, under Jerry’s leadership, threatened to secede from the club and start their own.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Either Virginia secedes from the union, something that did not work out so well 150 years ago.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 4, 2017
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
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
North Carolina: 26, 27, 194; secedes with Virginia, 229, 435-7, 452.
From Abraham Lincoln by Godfrey Rathbone Benson, Baron Charnwood
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
Southerners seceded to protect slavery and fought to preserve it.
From Slate ● Sep. 24, 2025
They constantly shifted configuration, some expanding by swarming over their neighbors, others imploding when their constituent villages seceded and joined other polities.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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 an oil-rich nation that became the world's newest country in 2011 after seceding from Sudan.
From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2025
“Texas has talked about seceding for a long time,” Ms. Haley said.
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2024
“We are competing in a global marketplace, and if we don’t make sure we are creating and building the technology of the future, we are seceding our leadership and mobility in transportation,” Ms. Dingell said.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 5, 2023
But they did hold on, and as the war trailed drearily on, vindictiveness toward the stubborn stand of the seceding states grew steadily more bitter in the North.
From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt
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.
