adjective
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having succeeded in one's endeavours
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marked by a favourable outcome
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having obtained fame, wealth, etc
Usage
Spelling tips for successful The word successful is hard to spell because it can be hard to know which letters are doubled. Both the c and the middle s are doubled, but the f and l are not. How to spell successful: To be a success, you need to see (two Cs) Some Smarts (two Ss). This reminds you that success is spelled with a double C in the middle and a double S at the end. To spell successful, you add the base word (success) to the suffix -ful.
Other Word Forms
- half-successful adjective
- half-successfully adverb
- half-successfulness noun
- nonsuccessful adjective
- nonsuccessfully adverb
- presuccessful adjective
- presuccessfully adverb
- quasi-successful adjective
- quasi-successfully adverb
- semisuccessful adjective
- semisuccessfully adverb
- successfully adverb
- successfulness noun
Etymology
Origin of successful
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.
"The team advanced from a paper concept to a successful, full-scale part demonstration of a new alloy in only 15 months," said Allen Haynes, director of ORNL's Light Metals Core Program.
From Science Daily
She claimed this included swapping her successful client account with a failing one, demoting her on a big internal project, and trying to downgrade her performance, the tribunal heard.
From BBC
Free of the formulaic—and wildly successful—pop of his boy band One Direction, he now had room to explore the full range of his musical interests.
He pitched it as a way to democratize access to a successful hedge-fund strategy for ordinary investors.
Although it is free to play, Fortnite is estimated to generate billions of dollars in revenue every year, making it one of the world's most successful games.
From BBC
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.