successful
UK/səkˈsɛs.fəl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/səkˈses.fəl/
successful adjective: resulting in success; assuring or promoting success; accomplishing what was proposed; having the desired effect.
Adjective
successful (comparative more successful, superlative most successful)
- Resulting in success; assuring or promoting success; accomplishing what was proposed; having the desired effect.
- a successful use of medicine; a successful experiment; a successful enterprise
- If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the ever more expensive and then universally known killing hazards of gasoline cars: […] .2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion
- Synonyms:
- efficacious, effective, fruitful, rewarding, accomplished, profitable, hot, bustling, flourishing, fortunate
- Antonyms:
- unsuccessful, failed
successful meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
successful in Hindi
- resulting in success
- सफल saphal, सुफल suphal
successful in Marathi
- यशस्वी
successful in Urdu
- resulting in success
- سپھل saphal
successful in Bengali
- resulting in success
- সফল śophol, কামিয়াব kamiẏab
More languagesFewer languages
- successful in Telugu
- విజయవంతమైనది
- successful in Malayalam
- സഫലമായ, അഭിവൃദ്ധിയുളള, ഭാഗ്യമുളള
- successful in Kannada
- ಯಶಸ್ವಿಯಾಗಿದೆ, ಯಶಸ್ವಿಯಾದರು
- successful in Punjabi
- ਕਾਮਯਾਬ kāmyāb
- successful in Gujarati
- સફળ
- successful in Odia
- ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ purṇṇa
- successful in Sanskrit
- सफल saphala
- successful in Assamese
- সফল xophol
- successful in Nepali
- सफल
- successful in Arabic
- نَاجِح nājiḥ, فَائِز fāʔiz, مُوَفَّق muwaffaq
- successful in Malay
- berjaya
- successful in Indonesian
- berhasil, sukses
- successful in Persian
- موفق movaffaq, کامگار kâmgâr
- successful in Vietnamese
- thành công
Examples of successful in a sentence
- But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:
- “Operation Warp Speed” was a SPECTACULAR SUCCESS, in fact, many say, one of the most successful things ever done by an American President.2026 July 29, Donald J. Trump, Truth Social, archived from the original on 30 Jul 2026:
Synonyms of successful
6 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of successful
| comparative | more successful |
|---|---|
| superlative | most successful |
Origin of successful
From success + -ful.
Words formed from successful
Questions about successful
- What does successful mean?
- Successful means resulting in success; assuring or promoting success; accomplishing what was proposed; having the desired effect.
- What is successful in Hindi?
- Successful in Hindi is सफल (saphal), सुफल (suphal). See Successful meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use successful in a sentence?
- But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
- What part of speech is successful?
- Successful is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce successful?
- Successful is pronounced /səkˈsɛs.fəl/ (UK).
Words near successful in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: successful (page history and authors); successful (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); successful (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); successful (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); successful (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ਕਾਮਯਾਬ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); successful (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ (Odia) (page history and authors); সফল (Assamese) (page history and authors); successful (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-successful.ogg.
Cite this entry: “successful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/successful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.