Meaning & use
success
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Meanings
noununcountable
The achievement of a desired aim, result, or standard.
Grammar: No plural for general accomplishment: success takes effort, not a success.
Patterns
- achieve success
- success in something
- the key to success
Success in language learning depends on steady practice.
She attributed the project's success to clear goals.
nouncountable
A person, product, event, or attempt that achieves a good result.
Grammar: Use a with one example: the launch was a success; plural is successes.
Patterns
- a great success
- a success with someone
- make something a success
The fundraiser was a success despite the rain.
Their first product was a success with young families.
Word forms
| plural | successes |
|---|
Common combinations
- achieve success
- Small steps help learners achieve success without burnout.
- success story
- The bakery became a local success story.
- key to success
- Communication is often the key to success in group work.
- success rate
- The clinic reported a higher success rate this year.
Synonyms and how they differ
- achievement
- Achievement is countable and names a reached goal; success can be the broader condition of succeeding.
- accomplishment
- Accomplishment emphasizes completing something difficult, often after effort.
- triumph
- Triumph suggests a great, public, or emotional victory rather than ordinary success.
Opposites
Word family
- succeed verb
- To achieve an aim or do well.
- successful adjective
- Having achieved a desired result.
- successfully adverb
- In a way that achieves the aim.
- succession noun
- A sequence or inheritance order, related only in spelling family.
Commonly confused: success or successful? success or succeed?
success vs successful
Successful is the adjective: a successful plan; success is the noun achieved.
success vs succeed
Succeed is the verb: you succeed in a task; success is the result.
Practice
Choose the correct form: The trial was ___ because recovery improved.
Choose one answer.
Here one specific event turned out well, so use countable a success; success alone would be too general, and successes would mean multiple events.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “success”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.