SUCCESSION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does succession mean? 

• SUCCESSION (noun)
  The noun SUCCESSION has 5 senses:

1. a following of one thing after another in time

2. a group of people or things arranged or following in order

3. the action of following in order

4. (ecology) the gradual and orderly process of change in an ecosystem brought about by the progressive replacement of one community by another until a stable climax is established

5. acquisition of property by descent or by will

  Familiarity information: SUCCESSION used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUCCESSION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A following of one thing after another in time

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

chronological sequence; chronological succession; sequence; succession; successiveness

Context example:

the doctor saw a sequence of patients

Hypernyms ("succession" is a kind of...):

temporal arrangement; temporal order (arrangement of events in time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "succession"):

pelting; rain (anything happening rapidly or in quick successive)

rotation (a planned recurrent sequence (of crops or personnel etc.))

row (a continuous chronological succession without an interruption)

run (an unbroken chronological sequence)

Derivation:

succeed (be the successor (of))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A group of people or things arranged or following in order

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

a succession of failures

Hypernyms ("succession" is a kind of...):

series (similar things placed in order or happening one after another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "succession"):

cascade (a succession of stages or operations or processes or units)

parade (an extended (often showy) succession of persons or things)

run; streak (an unbroken series of events)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The action of following in order

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

sequence; succession

Context example:

he played the trumps in sequence

Hypernyms ("succession" is a kind of...):

order; ordering (the act of putting things in a sequential arrangement)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "succession"):

chess opening; opening (a recognized sequence of moves at the beginning of a game of chess)

alternation (successive change from one thing or state to another and back again)

Derivation:

succeed (be the successor (of))

Sense 4

Meaning:

(ecology) the gradual and orderly process of change in an ecosystem brought about by the progressive replacement of one community by another until a stable climax is established

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

ecological succession; succession

Hypernyms ("succession" is a kind of...):

action; activity; natural action; natural process (a process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings))

Domain category:

bionomics; ecology; environmental science (the branch of biology concerned with the relations between organisms and their environment)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Acquisition of property by descent or by will

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

succession; taking over

Hypernyms ("succession" is a kind of...):

acquisition (the act of contracting or assuming or acquiring possession of something)

 Context examples 

One day, three dogs were turned in upon him in succession.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It will be of use to me to hear the succession of events again.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To everybody in succession, Captain Hopkins said: “Have you read it?”—“No.”—“Would you like to hear it read?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

As these considerations occurred to her in painful succession, she wept for him, more than for herself.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Dazed by the rapid succession of blows, Martin warned them back with vile and earnest curses sobbed out and groaned in ultimate desolation and despair.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

In shape they were like horrible toads, and moved in a succession of springs, but in size they were of an incredible bulk, larger than the largest elephant.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This tribe marries only among each other, and the eldest in succession is prince or governor.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He had then had several successful voyages in succession, and in the following year, 1884, he retired.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A form of involuntary muscular movement characterized by alternating contractions and relaxation in rapid succession.

(Clonus, NCI Thesaurus)

His wonder, his conjectures, and his explanations became in succession hers, with the addition of this single remark—I really have not patience with the general—to fill up every accidental pause.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)