successive

Successive is an adjective meaning following in order or occurring one after another in time or sequence. It describes items, events, or states that come in a chain, where each is later than the previous one. The term emphasizes order and progression. In common usage, phrases like “in successive years” or “successive generations” indicate a temporal sequence, while “consecutive” is often used for items that are immediately adjacent with no intervening elements.

Etymology of the word traces to Latin successus, meaning a following or result, and it passed into English via Old French. It is related to the verb succeed, which means to come after.

In mathematics and related fields, successive is widely used to describe elements that follow one another in a defined order. In sequences, successive terms are the elements that appear next to each other in the sequence. The concept supports methods such as successive approximations, where each step yields a refined estimate, and successive differences, which help analyze growth patterns. In numerical methods, successive iterations or solutions are common, as calculations are refined step by step.

In everyday language, successive often conveys continuity across a series of items, whether the events occur in quick succession or with gaps, while preserving a clear order. The term is versatile across disciplines, capturing the idea of progression from one stage to the next.