successive
- 1Coming one after another in an unbroken series.
The company posted gains for five successive quarters.
On three successive nights the alarm went off just after midnight.
Similarconsecutive, straight, running
Note
The everyday sense, and usually a counting one: a number or ordinal stands in front of it, as in five successive years, several successive days, an eighth successive victory. It is an absolute adjective, because a run of days either is successive or it is not, so it does not take more or very. Latin succedere, "to succeed in," lies behind it and behind the hereditary meaning alike.
- 2Relating to a succession; passed down by inheritance, as a title or right is.
The dukedom was a successive dignity, descending automatically to the firstborn.
In that kingdom the crown was successive rather than elective, so no council ever chose the next king.
Similarhereditary, inherited
Oppositeelective
Note
Here the series is a line of heirs rather than a run of days: a successive title or a successive empire is one that passes down by succession. The phrase can mislead, because a successive empire might also be read as one of several empires in a row, as in the counting sense. Talk of inheritance, heirs or a crown is what tells the reader which meaning is meant.
- 3Relating to a grammatical aspect in which a secondary action must be completed before the primary action of the statement can occur.
The grammar describes a successive construction where the subordinate clause names an action already finished.
Linguists noted that the successive marker on the first verb signals a completed event preceding the main one.
Note
A term from the description of aspect that names a relation between two actions rather than the shape of a single one. The finished secondary action works as a precondition, so the main statement holds only because that earlier event is complete. Keep it apart from the everyday sense of things simply following one another: here the earlier action is a premise, not merely a predecessor.
Practice
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Origin
It comes from the Latin verb "succedere," meaning "to succeed in."