successful

[suhk-ses-fuhl]

adjective

1. achieving or having achieved success.

2. having attained wealth, position, honors, or the like.

3. resulting in or attended with success.

successful

/ səkˈsɛsfʊl /

adjective

1. having succeeded in one's endeavours

2. marked by a favourable outcome

3. having obtained fame, wealth, etc

Other Word Forms

• successfulness noun
• successfully adverb
• 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of successful¹

First recorded in 1580–90; success + -ful

Example Sentences

Borderlands is, quietly, one of the most successful game series launched in the past 20 years.

From BBC

Successive UK governments have pointed to life sciences as one of its most successful industries.

From BBC

"You don't want to be a one-trick pony, certainly if you want to be successful."

From BBC

We helped him become the player he in part is today and he helped us as a team achieve some unbelievable milestones and was part of a very successful team.

From BBC

“If you look in Hollywood, the best partnerships have all been brothers,” he said, ticking off several successful movie business sibling partnerships including the Disneys, Warners and Nolans.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• fortunate 
• fruitful 
• happy 
• lucky 
• lucrative 
• outstanding 
• prosperous 
• rewarding 
• strong 
• wealthy 

When To Use

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.