Another important thing about Mozart to keep in mind is that his father was also a successful musician, as well as a _successful teacher_ of music who saw that his son had talent devoted a lot of time and effort towards making that talent bloom as much as possible. ❋ Steven Barnes (2008)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, the term successful is a little bit of a vague term when it comes to this. ❋ Unknown (2006)
The term successful, unfortunately, is a bit of a— a bit of a vague term. ❋ Unknown (2006)
Page 570 pains to make his term successful by having them possessed of qualities similar to his own. ❋ Kemp Plummer (1907)
«I find the term successful fascinating when used around institutional repositories,» says eScholarship Publishing Group director Catherine Mitchell.
In August, Iran announced what it called a successful test firing of a new, longer-range Fateh-110. ❋ Unknown (2010)
Plus, a doctor is sued after performing what she calls a successful life saving operation. ❋ Unknown (2009)
The Iranian military released this video Wednesday of what it called a successful test firing. ❋ Unknown (2009)
Kim’s public re-emerge comes as North Korea celebrates what it calls a successful missile launch. ❋ Unknown (2009)
According to a U.S. official, the military conducted what it describes as a successful strike into Syria yesterday. ❋ Unknown (2008)
An official says the U.S. carried out what it calls a successful attack inside that country near the Iraqi border. ❋ Unknown (2008)
There was — it what they called a successful use of underground safety valves on these oil rigs that prevented a catastrophic release of oil into the Gulf. ❋ Unknown (2008)
The communist nation announced it has conducted what it calls a successful nuclear test. ❋ Unknown (2006)
HAFFENREFFER: That ` s what I call a successful night. ❋ Unknown (2005)
At the conclusion of what it termed a successful two day anti-privatisation strike on Thursday, the Congress of SA Trade ❋ Unknown (2001)
Environmental Affairs Minister Valli Moosa has welcomed what he called the successful outcome of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, which was rescued from falling apart by an eleventh-hour compromise in Bonn on Monday. ❋ Unknown (2001)
MILES O’BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We’ve been listening to Attorney General Janet Reno, flanked by Doris Meissner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, addressing the media a little more than three hours after what she termed a successful Immigration and Naturalization Service effort to seize Elian Gonzalez, put him in federal custody and send him on his way to being reunited with his father Juan Miguel Gonzalez. ❋ Unknown (2000)
The President said he had received support from all the German political, banking and industrial, and cultural groups during what he described as a successful visit. ❋ Unknown (1996)
Mr Miller made the statement after what he described as successful negotiations with the parliamentary standing committee on constitutional affairs. ❋ Unknown (1995)
[Me and] [my husband] are very successful ❋ Kitt114 (2015)
«I really admire [Sir Richard] [Branson], his successfulness really comes through in interviews. It’s hard to imagine him [stressing] about anything!» ❋ Johnny Soporno (2017)
«Dude, did you see that new [movie] yet, ‘Slacker’ ?»
«Yeah, it’s so [awesome] ! That [flick] was totally successible.» ❋ Dw8177 (2018)
At age 4 [success] is not peeing [in your pants].
At age 12 success is having friends.
At age 16 success is having a [drivers license].
At age 20 success is having sex.
At age 35 success is having money.
At age 50 success is having money.
At age 60 success is having sex.
At age 70 success is having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is having friends.
At age 80 success is not peeing in your pants ❋ Seth (2003)
[James] is a [successful] guy, I read about him in [the paper] this morning. ❋ Pluttjulia (2014)
After years of [hard work], Paul found success in being promoted to [branch manager] for his [manufacturing] company. ❋ Definer332 (2015)
[Theres] nothing more important than [success]. [Not even] pussy. ❋ Brofesser J (2014)
Urban Dictionary [published] [my word]. I call that [a success]. ❋ TheWordSubmitter (2017)
Omg, is [ur] [girlfriend] [a Success] ❋ Cooollgyalll (2018)
[You don’t know] the real definition of [success] until you have received the [succ]. ❋ Herpes 2.0 (2017)
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
success + -ful.
Pronunciation[edit]
- enPR: sək-sĕsʹfəl, IPA(key): /səkˈsɛs.fl̩/
Adjective[edit]
successful (comparative more successful, superlative most successful)
- Resulting in success; assuring, or promoting, success; accomplishing what was proposed; having the desired effect
-
2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion[1]:
-
If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the ever more expensive and then universally known killing hazards of gasoline cars: […] .
-
-
2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:
-
The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […] «share the things you love with the world» and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people’s control of their own attention.
-
-
a successful use of medicine; a successful experiment; a successful enterprise
- Synonyms: prosperous, fortunate, happy
-
Synonyms[edit]
- efficacious, effective, fruitful, rewarding, accomplished, profitable
- See also Thesaurus:prosperous
- (of requests): tithe (obs.)
Antonyms[edit]
- unsuccessful
- failed
Derived terms[edit]
- behind every successful man there stands a woman
- successfully
- successfulness
[edit]
- success
Translations[edit]
resulting in success
- Arabic: نَاجِح (nājiḥ), فَائِز (fāʔiz), مُوَفَّق (muwaffaq)
- Azerbaijani: uğurlu (az), müvəffəqiyyətli
- Basque: arrakastatsu
- Belarusian: паспяхо́вы (paspjaxóvy)
- Bengali: সফল (bn) (śphol), কামিয়াব (bn) (kamiẏoab)
- Bulgarian: успе́шен (bg) (uspéšen)
- Catalan: reeixit (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 有成效的 (zh) (yǒu chéngxiào de), 完滿／完满 (zh) (wánmǎn), 成功的 (zh) (chénggōng de)
- Cantonese: 成功嘅 (sing4 gong1 ge3)
- Czech: úspěšný (cs)
- Danish: succesfuld, succesrig
- Dutch: succesvol (nl), geslaagd (nl), gelukt (nl)
- Esperanto: sukcesa
- Estonian: edukas, õnnestunud
- Finnish: onnistunut (fi), menestynyt, menestyvä
- French: ayant du succès, marqué de succès, couronné de succès (fr)
- Georgian: წარმატებული (c̣armaṭebuli)
- German: erfolgreich (de)
- Greek: επιτυχημένος (el) (epitychiménos), επιτυχών (el) (epitychón)
- Ancient: οὔριος (oúrios)
- Hebrew: מוצלח (he) (mutzlákh)
- Hindi: सफल (hi) (saphal)
- Hungarian: sikeres (hu), eredményes (hu)
- Indonesian: berhasil (id)
- Irish: áitheasach
- Italian: di successo, coronato dal successo, riuscito (it)
- Japanese: 成功した (ja) (せいこうした, seikō shita)
- Korean: 성공적(成功的) (ko) (seonggongjeok), 성공(成功)한 (ko) (seonggonghan)
- Latin: prosper, prosperus
- Lü: ᦷᦎᧅᦑᦲᧈ (ṫoktii¹), ᦷᦎᧅᦑᦲᧈᦔᦲᧃᦡᦲ (ṫoktii¹ṗiinḋii)
- Macedonian: у́спешен (úspešen)
- Malay: berjaya (ms)
- Maori: momoho, angitu
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: vellykket
- Nynorsk: vellukka
- Old English: spēdiġ
- Persian: موفق (fa) (movaffaq), کامگار (fa) (kâmgâr)
- Polish: udany (pl)
- Portuguese: bem-sucedido (pt), conseguido (pt), próspero (pt) m
- Romanian: reușit (ro), izbutit (ro), plin de succes
- Russian: успе́шный (ru) (uspéšnyj), благополу́чный (ru) (blagopolúčnyj), уда́чный (ru) (udáčnyj)
- Sanskrit: सफल (sa) (saphala)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: успешан, успјешан
- Roman: uspešan (sh), uspješan (sh)
- Slovak: úspešný m
- Slovene: uspešen
- Spanish: exitoso, logrado (es), afortunado (es)
- Swedish: lyckad (sv), framgångsrik (sv)
- Turkish: muvaffaklar pl, muvaffak (tr)
- Ukrainian: успі́шний (uspíšnyj), вда́тний (vdátnyj)
- Urdu: سپھل (saphal)
- Vietnamese: thành công (vi)
- Yiddish: הצלחהדיק (hatslokhedik)
If you win or do well, at whatever it is you do, you are successful. Successful people usually get more money, attention, and praise.
If you go into business and make a lot of money, you’re successful. If you play tennis and finish the season with more wins than losses, you’ve been successful. If you have a successful pregnancy, you give birth to a healthy baby. Successful is one of those words that covers a great deal of ground; it generally applies to anything, anyone or any venture that ends well. When you see the word successful, think «Winning!»
Definitions of successful
-
adjective
having succeeded or being marked by a favorable outcome
“a
successful architect”“a
successful business venture”-
Synonyms:
-
undefeated
victorious
-
fortunate
having unexpected good fortune
-
productive
producing or capable of producing (especially abundantly)
-
boffo
resoundingly successful and popular
-
booming, flourishing, palmy, prospering, prosperous, roaring, thriving
very lively and profitable
-
in
holding office
-
made
successful or assured of success
-
no-hit
of a game (or the pitching) in which a pitcher allows the opponent no hits
-
productive
yielding positive results
-
self-made
having achieved success or recognition by your own efforts
-
sure-fire
certain to be successful
-
triple-crown
unofficial championship title for player who heads the league in batting average and home runs and runs batted in
-
triple-crown
of a horse that has won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes and the Preakness races
-
victorious, winning
having won
see moresee less-
Antonyms:
-
unsuccessful
not successful; having failed or having an unfavorable outcome
-
defeated
beaten or overcome; not victorious
-
unfortunate
not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune
-
unprofitable
producing little or no profit or gain
-
attempted
tried unsuccessfully
-
defeated, disappointed, discomfited, foiled, frustrated, thwarted
disappointingly unsuccessful
-
done for, ruined, sunk, undone, washed-up
doomed to extinction
-
down-and-out
lacking resources (or any prospect of resources)
-
empty-handed, unrewarded
having acquired or gained nothing
-
hitless
(of a batter) without a hit
-
no-win
certain to end in failure and disappointment
-
out
out of power; especially having been unsuccessful in an election
-
goalless, hitless, scoreless
having no points scores
-
self-defeating
acting to defeat its own purpose
-
unfulfilled, unrealised, unrealized
of persons; marked by failure to realize full potentialities
-
unplaced
not one of the first three in a race or competition
-
winless
having no wins
- show more antonyms…
-
undefeated
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘successful’.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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-
Defenition of the word successful
- Resulting in success; assuring, or promotive of, success; accomplishing what was proposed; having the desired effect
- having succeeded or being marked by a favorable outcome; «a successful architect»; «a successful business venture»
- having succeeded or being marked by a favorable outcome
Synonyms for the word successful
-
- booming
- doing well
- flourishing
- lucrative
- profitable
- thriving
- triumphant
- unbeaten
- victorious
- winning
Similar words in the successful
-
- booming
- eminent
- flourishing
- fortunate
- in
- in(p)
- made
- no-hit
- palmy
- productive
- prospering
- prosperous
- roaring
- self-made
- successful
- successfully
- sure-fire
- thriving
- triple-crown
- undefeated
- victorious
- winning
Antonyms for the word successful
-
- unsuccessful
See other words
-
- What is changeling
- The definition of gold mine
- The interpretation of the word changeovers
- What is meant by prophets
- The lexical meaning substitute
- The dictionary meaning of the word transformation
- The grammatical meaning of the word exchange
- Meaning of the word modification
- Literal and figurative meaning of the word loose change
- The origin of the word profitable idea
- Synonym for the word economic
- Antonyms for the word profitable
- Homonyms for the word gainful
- Hyponyms for the word prophesying
- Holonyms for the word lucrative
- Hypernyms for the word harmony
- Proverbs and sayings for the word productive
- Translation of the word in other languages benefactions
1
: resulting or terminating in success
2
: gaining or having gained success
Synonyms
Example Sentences
the play had a successful run on Broadway
sold their successful dry-cleaning business and retired to Hawaii
Recent Examples on the Web
Though its baseball and softball teams had been historically successful, the vision for growing into a national brand was supposed to happen on the football field, where Schnellenberger helped raise $70 million to build a stadium.
—
Dan Wolken, USA TODAY, 30 Mar. 2023
By 2001, Terry, at thirteen (played by Aven Courtney), is academically successful and counselled to take the citywide test for specialized (i.e., highly selective) public high schools.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 29 Mar. 2023
In its current production at Redtwist Theatre, directed by Rinska Carrasco-Prestinary, the play raises important questions with the aid of some clever dramatic devices but is less successful in its attempt to capture the human cost of striving for utopia.
—Emily Mcclanathan, Chicago Tribune, 28 Mar. 2023
How successful was the CIA drone program against al-Qaeda in Pakistan?
—Peter Bergen, CNN, 28 Mar. 2023
The indictment said the effort to pay off the unnamed Chinese officials was successful in getting the trading accounts unfrozen.
—Matthew Goldstein, BostonGlobe.com, 28 Mar. 2023
That tactic can be successful on forest fires, but blazes in a 150-foot deep landfill near residential neighborhoods are a different story.
—Dennis Pillion | Dpillion@al.com, al, 28 Mar. 2023
The use of antibiotics was astoundingly successful against many, but not all, childhood diseases.
—Gary Simon, The Atlantic, 28 Mar. 2023
During a Monday appearance on LIVE with Kelly and Ryan, the 44-year-old Yellowjackets actress reflected on the lasting legacy of the 1998 teen classic, plus how successful much of the cast has been in the years since.
—Jen Juneau, Peoplemag, 27 Mar. 2023
See More
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘successful.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1594, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Time Traveler
The first known use of successful was
in 1594
Dictionary Entries Near successful
Cite this Entry
“Successful.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/successful. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.
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Last Updated:
31 Mar 2023
— Updated example sentences
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