- succession
- succession, progression, series, sequence, chain, train, string are comparable when they mean a number of things that follow each other in some order.Succession implies that the units, whether things or persons, follow each other, typically in order of time or, less often, of place and usually without break or interruption{
a succession of disasters
}{a succession of mild winters
}{there was a dizzy succession of events and of constantly changing situations— Shirer
}{a succession of rooms, one after the other, extending over a great length— Amer. Guide Series: La.
}{reality is a succession of concrete and particular situations— Huxley
}Progression (see also PROGRESS 2) applies to a succession in which there is movement and flow, and often change, so that a pattern is formed or an advance is indicated. The word is most frequent in mathematics and in music; in the former it denotes a succession of quantities between every two of which there is a particular but an unvarying relation{arithmetical progression
}{all the following systems are based on a progression by which the amount of a bet is increased after a loss— Morehead & Mott-Smith
}In music it denotes a succession of chords which constitute a harmony{a short melodic line without addition of simultaneous harmony, containing mostly stepwise progressions, moderately interspersed with leaps— Hindemith
}Series applies to a number of things of similar or uniform character that stand in the same relation to each other or achieve the same end; often the term is indistinguishable from succession, but the combined or total effect of the units is rather more stressed than the fact that they follow each other{a series of notes
}{a series of visits
}{a series of payments
}{it all came together in my understanding, as a series of experiments do when you begin to see where they are leading— Cather
}{some so-called series are nothing more than miscellaneous collections of books published at the same price and in the same style— McColviny
}Sequence is more restricted in meaning than series and implies a closer causal or logical connection between the things involved (as a numerical or chronological order or a settled recurrence in the same order){the sequence of the seasons
}{his thoughts flow in logical sequence
}{preferring rather to get the news in weekly retrospect, from the periodicals —for these organs treated events of a preceding week as an understandable sequence and gave them discernible pattern— Terry Southern
}{our presidents have run in sequences, and . . . have tended to be classifiable under three main types— Edmund Wilson
}Chain applies to a succession or series which forms a logical or causal sequence{a chain of arguments
}{a chain of effects
}{the long chain of development which makes the very language of the English Bible what it is— Lowes
}{there is no climactic choice in the story; it moves evenly on a chain of circumstances— Walcutt
}Train applies to a number of persons, animals, or concrete things or of effects or ideas that follow as attendants or as consequences or sometimes (as in the case of causes) that precede{she always has a train of admirers
}{I invite your Highness and your train to my poor cell— Shak.
}{a long train of causes
}{the August afternoon that the little train of silent people carried her out of her own door up to the family burying ground— Deland
}{somebody who wrote and wrote and never finished even one train of thought to the very end— Purdy
}String applies to a series or succession so uniform (as in character, size, or quality) that its units are or seem to be strung on a thread; usually there is little implication of chronological, logical, or causal connection{a string of victories
}{his long string of single-handed successes made rich fare for . . . crime reporters— Spiers
}{launched at once into a string of stories— Dawson & Wilson
}Analogous words: consecutiveness, successiveness (see corresponding adjectives at CONSECUTIVE): articulation, concatenation, integration (see under INTEGRATE)
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
