The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Succession \Suc*ces"sion\, n. [L. successio: cf. F. succession.
   See Succeed.]
   1. The act of succeeding, or following after; a following of
      things in order of time or place, or a series of things so
      following; sequence; as, a succession of good crops; a
      succession of disasters.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A series of persons or things according to some
      established rule of precedence; as, a succession of kings,
      or of bishops; a succession of events in chronology.
      [1913 Webster]

            He was in the succession to an earldom. --Macaulay.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. An order or series of descendants; lineage; race; descent.
      "A long succession must ensue." --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. The power or right of succeeding to the station or title
      of a father or other predecessor; the right to enter upon
      the office, rank, position, etc., held ny another; also,
      the entrance into the office, station, or rank of a
      predecessor; specifically, the succeeding, or right of
      succeeding, to a throne.
      [1913 Webster]

            You have the voice of the king himself for your
            succession in Denmark.                --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            The animosity of these factions did not really arise
            from the dispute about the succession. --Macaulay.
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   5. The right to enter upon the possession of the property of
      an ancestor, or one near of kin, or one preceding in an
      established order.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. The person succeeding to rank or office; a successor or
      heir. [R.] --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   Apostolical succession. (Theol.) See under Apostolical.


   Succession duty, a tax imposed on every succession to
      property, according to its value and the relation of the
      person who succeeds to the previous owner. [Eng.]

   Succession of crops. (Agric.) See Rotation of crops,
      under Rotation.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

succession
    n 1: a following of one thing after another in time; "the doctor
         saw a sequence of patients" [syn: sequence,
         chronological sequence, succession, successiveness,
         chronological succession]
    2: a group of people or things arranged or following in order;
       "a succession of stalls offering soft drinks"; "a succession
       of failures"
    3: the action of following in order; "he played the trumps in
       sequence" [syn: succession, sequence]
    4: (ecology) the gradual and orderly process of change in an
       ecosystem brought about by the progressive replacement of one
       community by another until a stable climax is established
       [syn: succession, ecological succession]
    5: acquisition of property by descent or by will [syn:
       succession, taking over]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

207 Moby Thesaurus words for "succession":
   Indian file, accession, affiliation, afterlife, alternation,
   ancestry, anointing, anointment, apparentation, appointment, array,
   arrogation, articulation, assignment, assumption, at intervals,
   attainment, authorization, bank, bequeathal, bequest, birth,
   birthright, blood, bloodline, borough-English, branch, breed,
   brood, buzz, catena, catenation, chain, chain reaction, chaining,
   children, coheirship, coming after, common ancestry, concatenation,
   connection, consanguinity, consecration, consecution,
   consecutively, consecutiveness, continuation, continuity,
   continuum, conveyance, conveyancing, coparcenary, coronation,
   course, cycle, delegation, deputation, derivation, descendants,
   descent, devolution, direct line, distaff side, drone, dynasty,
   election, elevation, empowerment, endless belt, endless round,
   entail, extension, extraction, family, female line, file,
   filiation, flow, following, fruit, future time, gamut, gavelkind,
   gradation, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, hangover, heirloom,
   heirs, heirship, hereditament, heritable, heritage, heritance,
   hostages to fortune, house, hum, in a row, in line, in order,
   in succession, incorporeal hereditament, inheritance, inheritors,
   issue, kids, lateness, law of succession, legacy,
   legitimate succession, line, line of descent, line of succession,
   lineage, little ones, logical sequence, male line,
   mode of succession, monotone, new generation, next life, nexus,
   offspring, order, order of succession, patrimony, pendulum,
   periodicity, phylum, plenum, postdate, postdating, posteriority,
   posterity, postposition, postremogeniture, powder train,
   primogeniture, procession, progeny, progression, prolongation,
   promotion, provenience, queue, race, range, rank, recurrence,
   remainder, reticulation, reversion, rising generation, rotation,
   round, round robin, routine, row, run, running, scale, seed,
   seizure, sept, sequel, sequence, series, shift, shifting trust,
   shifting use, side, single file, sons, spear side, spectrum,
   spindle side, stem, stirps, stock, strain, string, subjunction,
   subsequence, successively, successiveness, suffixation, suite,
   supervenience, supervention, swath, sword side, taking over,
   thread, tier, train, transfer, transferral, transmission,
   transmittal, treasures, turn, ultimogeniture, uninterruptedly,
   usurpation, windrow, younglings, youngsters



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

SUCCESSION, in Louisiana. The right and transmission of the rights an
obligations of the deceased to his heirs. Succession signifies also the
estate, rights and charges which a person leaves after his death, whether
the property exceed the charges, or the charges exceed the property, or
whether he has left only charges without property. The succession not only
includes the rights and obligations of the deceased, as they exist at the
time of his death, but all that has accrued thereto since the opening of the
succession, as also of the new charges to which it becomes subject. Finally,
succession signifies also that right by which the heir can take possession
of the estate of the deceased, such as it may be.
     2. There are three sorts of successions, to wit: testamentary
succession; legal succession; and, irregular succession. 1. Testamentary
succession is that which results from the constitution of the heir,
contained in a testament executed in the form prescribed by law. 2. Legal
succession is that which is established in favor of the nearest relations of
the deceased. 3. Irregular succession is that which is established by law in
favor of certain persons or of the state in default of heirs either legal or
instituted by testament. Civ. Code, art. 867-874.
     3. The lines of a regular succession are divided into three, which rank
among themselves in the following order: 1. Descendants. 2. Ascendants. 3.
Collaterals. See Descent. Vide Poth. Traite des Successions Ibid. Coutumes
d'Orleans, tit. 17 Ayl. Pand. 348; Toull. liv. 3, tit. 1; Domat, h.t.; Merl.
Repert. h.t.



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

SUCCESSION, com. law. The mode by which one set of persons, members of a
corporation aggregate, acquire the rights of another set which preceded
them. This term in strictness is to be applied only to such corporations. 2
Bl. Com. 430.