successor
Pluralsuccessors
- 1A person or thing that immediately takes over another's office or title.
When the CEO retired, the board appointed her successor within a week.
The dynasty collapsed because no clear successor had been named.
Similarreplacement, heir
Oppositepredecessor
Note
The office-and-title sense usually takes one of two constructions. One is successor to someone: a manager can be named permanent successor to the man he replaced. The other is possessive, as in his or her successor, often after verbs like emerge as or appoint. The word came into English from Anglo-Norman successour, which came from Latin successor, and modern English keeps the Latin spelling exactly.
- 2Someone to whom another person's title or office passes by inheritance.
Upon the duke's death, his nephew was confirmed as the lawful successor.
Having no children, the baron left his sister's son as his successor.
Similarheir
Oppositepredecessor
- 3The next heir in the established order of succession.
Genealogists studied the family tree to identify the rightful successor to the estate.
Under the rules of primogeniture, the firstborn child is the successor.
Similarheir
Oppositepredecessor
Note
Here the word looks forward. An heir is next in line, ranked by an order of succession such as primogeniture, and may not yet hold anything at all. one who has already inherited looks back on a title that has already passed. Ask whether the inheritance has happened yet: before it, the successor is waiting; after it, the successor holds the title.
- 4The integer, ordinal, or cardinal number that immediately follows another.
The successor of any integer is found by adding one to it.
Counting works by repeatedly taking the successor of the current number.
Oppositepredecessor
Note
Mathematics uses the word for a single step up a count. For a natural number n, the successor is n + 1. For an ordinal α, it is the smallest ordinal strictly greater than α, which set theory builds as α ∪ {α}. Ordinals that are no ordinal's successor are called limit ordinals, and they mark where counting by single steps can no longer reach.
Practice
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Origin
From Anglo-Norman successour, itself from Latin successor.