Successive means following one after another. Three successive wins, successive governments, on successive days.
It means in an unbroken run, which is what makes it worth using instead of several. Successive governments is the standard phrase for blaming a problem on everybody who has held office.
1adjectivesuccessiveFollowing one after another.
“The team has won the league for three successive seasons.”
successive is a quality.
Latin successivus comes from succedere, to follow after, from sub plus cedere, to go.
Latin
succedere — to succeed in
English, today
successive
From Latin succedere (“to succeed in”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA