This is the 3581st most frequent Russian word.
следующие
"Следующие" means "following" or "next" in English.
The word 'следующие' is used here as an adjective meaning 'following,' describing the steps that succeed or come after a particular point in a sequence.
Следующие шаги будут важными для завершения проекта.
The following steps will be important to complete the project.
In this sentence, 'следующие' serves as an adjective specifying portions of a text or a body of work that come next in the sequence, which are planned for future engagement.
Я прочту следующие главы завтра.
I will read the following chapters tomorrow.
Here, 'следующие' is an adjective describing the items to be chosen from a given context, implying they come subsequent to an indicated starting point.