Other forms: successions
Succession is the order in which a title or a post passes on. The line of succession, the succession crisis, in quick succession.
Who comes next is one of the oldest sources of conflict in history, and clear rules of succession exist precisely because unclear ones cause wars. The British line of succession is set by statute rather than by custom alone. It also means a series of things one after another: a succession of failures, in quick succession. Note succeed; and ecological succession, the sequence in which a habitat develops.
1nounsuccessionThe order in which a title or post passes on.
“As the king's eldest daughter, she is first in the line of succession.”
2nounseriesA series of things one after another.
“The phone rang three times in quick succession.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
succession is an order of following.
Latin successio comes from succedere, to follow after — sub plus cedere, to go. Succeed, cede and concede come from the same going.
Latin
successiō
Old French
succession
English, today
succession
Middle English, from Old French succession, from Latin successiō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA