To succeed means to accomplish what you set out to do or to achieve a goal you've been working toward. When you succeed at something, you've done it: you passed the test, won the game, solved the problem, or finished the project.

Success can be big or small. A scientist succeeds when her experiment proves her hypothesis correct. A baker succeeds when the cake rises perfectly. You succeed when you finally learn to ride your bike without training wheels, or when you finish reading that thick book you started months ago.

The word comes with a feeling of achievement and satisfaction. Succeeding usually means you've put in effort, faced some difficulty, and pushed through to reach your goal. That's why succeeding feels different from just getting lucky: there's a sense that you earned it.

Notice that succeeding doesn't always mean being the absolute best. If you set out to learn ten new vocabulary words and you learn all ten, you've succeeded, even if your friend learned fifteen. Success is about meeting your goals and doing what you intended to do. A team succeeds when they work together to win the championship, but they also succeed when they improve throughout the season and play their best game in the finals, even if they don't take home the trophy.