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:
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
Ron Kaye, a longtime Los Angeles Daily News editor known for civically inspired muckraking and boosting the San Fernando Valley — including a failed bid for the Valley to secede from L.A. — has died.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2024
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
Sikh Americans have wide-ranging opinions on whether Sikhs should secede from India.
From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2023
It retains the right to secede at will.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
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
Irish municipal bill 372 Church rates 373 Burdett secedes from the whig party 374 20 June.
From The Political History of England - Vol XI From Addington's Administration to the close of William IV.'s Reign (1801-1837) by Brodrick, George C. (George Charles)
“The past and present were endlessly intermingled,” Ms. Phillips recalls: “Every kid in town knew that West Virginia had seceded from Virginia to stand for the Union.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 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
In 1861, two weeks after South Carolina seceded from the Union, Morris Jacob Raphall, the Orthodox rabbi of B’nai Jeshurun synagogue in New York, gave a sermon proclaiming that the Hebrew Bible endorsed slavery.
From Slate ● Apr. 10, 2025
California and Texas have seceded, becoming unlikely allies in a campaign to retake the capital.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2024
In February, the states that had seceded formed a new union called the Confederate States of America.
From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry
In early 1861, Clay was in Washington, D.C., where he organized a volunteer company to help defend the city against attack from seceding states.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 3, 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
“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
He had heard talk of tariffs, of slave states and free ones, of a violent old man named John Brown, and during the past winter, of states seceding from the Union.
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.
