success
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /səkˈsɛs/
rhymes: -ɛs
Forms: form: successes
form: successe
Etymology: Learned borrowing from Latin successus, from succēdō (“succeed”), from sub- (“next to”) + cēdō (“go, move”). Partly displaced native Old English spēd, whence Modern English speed.
Senses: examples: text: His third attempt to pass the entrance exam was a success.
text: a glowing success
text: Actually there was recently a talented young female bassoonist who gave up a promising career on that sturdy instrument, not to do something more feminine but to take up bullfighting. This is Patricia Hayes of San Angelo, Texas, who has had spectacular success in the arenas of Mexico and Portugal. Unfortunately she is not America's only matadoress.
ref: 1956 December 24, Cornelia Otis Skinner, “Women are misguided: They are still waging a shrill, ridiculous war over the dead issue of feminism”, in Life, volume 41, number 26, page 75:
text: Republicans are launching a new nonprofit group to highlight the legislative successes of its vulnerable incumbents with a $2 million advertising blitz touting the work of five vulnerable GOP senators to protect Medicare.
ref: 2015 May 12, Alexandra Jaffe, “First on CNN: New Rove-linked group spends $2M to boost GOP incumbents”, in CNN:
synonyms: hit
antonyms: failure
glosses: The achievement of one's aim or goal.
examples: text: Don't let success go to your head.
text: Instead Nokia decided better to stick with what they knew worked - good, solid, reliable mobile phones of the kind that had brought them success until then.
ref: 2013 September 24, Noreena Hertz, “Noreena Hertz: Don’t get stuck in your own success”, in CNN:
topics: business
glosses: Financial profitability.
examples: text: Scholastically, he was a success.
text: The new range of toys has been a resounding success.
text: There have been other drugs since reticulose that I became aware of the successes of, some even able to claim "cure," even turning people from HIV-positive to negative.
ref: 1998, Gavin Dillard, In the Flesh: Undressing for Success, page 141:
text: There have been some surprising successes, though - the LTM's [London Transport Museum's] online gift shop is currently selling 75% more products during lockdown than it was in the same period last year.
ref: 2020 June 3, Sam Mullins OBE discusses with Stefanie Foster, “LTM: a new chapter begins at 40”, in Rail, page 53:
text: Freightliner says trials with a new lower-emission fuel for its diesel fleet have been a success, raising its credentials as a supporter of reducing greenhouse gases.
ref: 2021 December 1, “Network News: Freightliner claims emissions success”, in RAIL, number 945, page 15:
glosses: One who, or that which, achieves assumed goals.
examples: text: She is country music's most recent success.
glosses: The fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect, or fame.
examples: text: I suppose them as at the beginning of no meane endeavour, not a little alter'd and mov'd inwardly in their mindes: Some with doubt of what will be the successe, others with fear of what will be the censure; some with hope, others with confidence of what they have to speake.
ref: 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC:
glosses: Something which happens as a consequence; the outcome or result.
Synonyms: éclat
Derived terms: critical success factor
customer success
customer success manager
don't mess with success
first success distribution
nothing succeeds like success
roaring success
success depends on your backbone, not your wishbone
successful
successfully
success has many fathers, failure is an orphan
success is a great deodorant
successism
success message
success metric
success story
sweet smell of success
victim of one's own success