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successful

adjective

Simple meaning

Achieving what you wanted or hoped for.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

suhksehsfuhl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

səkˈsɛsfəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Resulting in success; assuring or promoting success; accomplishing what was proposed; having the desired effect.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Resulting in success; assuring or promoting success; accomplishing what was proposed; having the desired effect.

Used this way, successful is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It quietly approves while staying precise.

Emotional tone
Positive
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Successful and accomplished
Usage feel
Precise and approving

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use successful

  • “A successful architect.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

highly successfulless successfulsuccessful completionsuccessful businesssuccessful treatmentsuccessful careersuccessful implementationsuccessful conclusion

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • successornounPerson or profession

    A person who follows next in order.

  • successfullyadverbDerived adverb

    With success.

  • successivelyadverbDerived adverb

    In proper order or sequence.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: resulting in success

productivewinning

Antonyms

Sense: resulting in success

unsuccessful

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.