adjective
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having succeeded in one's endeavours
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marked by a favourable outcome
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having obtained fame, wealth, etc
Usage
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.
Other Word Forms
- 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
- successfully adverb
- successfulness noun
Etymology
Origin of successful
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“They were successful in wiping out many weak accounts.”
From Barron's • Apr. 7, 2026
Both the US and China are now racing to combine robots with agentic AI - and a US firm has shown that its no longer only Chinese firms who can deliver successful robots.
From BBC • Apr. 7, 2026
"Some diets will be more successful than others, but if you try this for pathogens other than cholera, I suspect we'll also see a beneficial effect," Hsiao said.
From Science Daily • Apr. 7, 2026
Clarence Barron, this magazine’s founder, called investing “the application of money to practical ends,” as opposed to gambling, where “the gains of the successful merely offset the losses of the unsuccessful.”
From Barron's • Apr. 7, 2026
The novel became required reading for all Hitler Youth and later was turned into a successful film.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.