Word
come
US/ˈkəm/
UK/kˈʌm/
Irregular verb
Forms
Infinitive
come
Past
came
Past participle
come
Definitions
01to move toward
A1 · Beginner
v. to move toward the person speaking or toward a specific place.
v. to move toward the speaker or a deictic centre of perspective.
“Please come here for a moment so I can show you this photo.”
“The children came running toward the gate as soon as they heard their father's car in the driveway.”
Usage
Intransitive; often followed by 'to' and a destination.
Pitfall
I will go to your house tonight.
I will come to your house tonight.
Use 'come' when moving toward the person you are talking to, even if you are not there yet.
02to arrive
A1 · Beginner
v. to reach a place or a goal.
v. to arrive at a destination or reach a particular point in time or space.
Español:conllevar
“The train should come at ten o'clock if there are no delays.”
“Winter had come early that year, dusting the peaks with snow before the harvest was even finished.”
Antonyms
03to originate
A2 · Elementary
v. to have a particular place or family as an origin.
v. to have a specified origin, such as a place, family, or source.
“Many of the students in this class come from different countries.”
“The tradition comes from a time when rural communities relied on seasonal festivals to mark the passage of the year.”
Usage
Usually followed by the preposition 'from'.
04to be available
B1 · Intermediate
v. to be sold or made in a specific way, like a certain color or size.
v. to be manufactured, supplied, or made available in a specific form or variety.
“This shirt comes in three different colors: red, blue, and green.”
“The new software package comes with a comprehensive manual and twenty-four-hour technical support for all registered users.”
Usage
Often followed by 'in' or 'with'.
05to happen
B2 · Upper Intermediate
v. to take place or happen.
v. to occur or happen, often as a result of something else.
“How did it come that you decided to move to London?”
“It came to pass that the two rival families finally settled their differences through a strategic marriage.”
Usage
Common in the phrase 'come to pass'.
06to reach a state
B1 · Intermediate
v. to reach a certain condition or feeling over time.
v. to reach a particular state, condition, or realization through a process.
“I have come to realize that learning a language takes a lot of patience.”
“After months of negotiation, the two parties have finally come to an agreement regarding the contract terms.”
Usage
Often followed by an infinitive, like 'to realize' or 'to understand'.
07sexual climax
C1 · Advanced Slang · Vulgar
v. to reach a sexual climax.
v. to achieve orgasm or ejaculate.
“The movie was rated R because the characters were shown coming.”
“The explicit nature of the dialogue, including references to coming, made the play controversial among more conservative audiences.”
Usage
Intransitive; often spelled 'cum' in this specific sense.
08by the time of
C1 · Advanced Formal · Literary
prep. used to talk about a time in the future when something will happen.
prep. used to indicate a point in time at or after which a stated event occurs.
“Come next summer, we will have lived here for ten years.”
“Come the revolution, the old structures of power will be swept away by the will of the people.”
Usage
Placed before the time or event it refers to.
Synonyms
09semen
C2 · Proficiency Uncountable noun Slang · Vulgar
n. the liquid that comes out of a man's body during sex.
n. semen or female ejaculatory discharge.
“He wiped the come off his stomach with a towel.”
“The presence of come on the sheets was used as evidence in the forensic investigation.”
Usage
Uncountable; frequently spelled 'cum'.
Synonyms
Confusables
Come indicates movement toward the speaker or listener's current or future location, while go indicates movement away from them toward a different destination.
RememberCome is toward me; go is away from me.
Etymology
From Middle English comen, cumen, from Old English cuman, from Proto-West Germanic kweman, from Proto-Germanic kwemaną (“to come”), from Proto-Indo-European gʷémt (“to step; to arrive”), from gʷem- (“to come, step”). Cognates Cognate from Proto-Germanic with Scots cum (“to come”), Yola come, coome, cum (“to come”), North Frisian kaame, kame, keem, kem, kum, kååme, käme (“to come”), Saterland Frisian kume, kuume (“to come”), West Frisian komme (“to come”), Alemannic German cha, cheemen, cheme, cho, chomu, chéeme (“to come”), Bavarian ckeman, kemma, kemman, khemen, kumma, kumman, kèmmin (“to come”), Central Franconian komme, kunn, kumme (“to come”), Cimbrian ken, khemmen, khèmman (“to come”), Dutch komen, kommen (“to come”), Dutch Low Saxon kåmen (“to come”), German and Luxembourgish kommen (“to come”), Low German kamen, kuemen (“to come”), Mòcheno kemmen (“to come”), Yiddish קימען (kimen), קומען (kumen, “to come”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål komme (“to come”), Elfdalian kumå (“to come”), Faroese and Icelandic koma (“to come; to arrive”), Jamtish kuma (“to come”), Norwegian Nynorsk koma, komma, komme, kåmmå, kåmå (“to come”), Swedish komma (“to come”), Crimean Gothic kommen (“to come”), Gothic 𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (qiman, “to come”). Cognate from Proto-Indo-European with Latin venio (“to come; to approach”), Greek βήμα (víma, “pace, step”), Albanian ngah, ngaj (“to hasten, run”), Latvian dzimt (“to be born”), Lithuanian gimti (“to be born”), Armenian եկ (ek, “the act of coming, arrival; income”), Avestan 𐬔𐬀𐬨 (gam, “to come, go”), Northern Kurdish gav (“step”), Persian گام (gâm, “step”), Tocharian A kum- (“to come”), Tocharian B käm- (“to come”), Sanskrit गम् (gam, “to come, go, move”).
See comma.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
VERB
ADJECTIVE
PHRASAL VERB
Related words
Idioms
01. appetite comes with eating
02. as they come
04. burn that bridge when one comes to it
06. come a cropper
07. come a long way
08. come again
09. come alive
10. come along
Show all 100
11. come and go
13. come around
15. come clean
16. come down
18. come down to
20. come down to us
21. come first
22. come forward
23. come from a Cracker Jack box
25. come full circle
27. come home by weeping cross
30. come in handy
31. come in hot
32. come into being
35. come knocking
36. come of age
37. come on
38. come on over
39. come on strong
40. come online
41. come out
44. come out of the broom closet
48. come right
51. come through
52. come to
53. come to a close
54. come to a head
56. come to an end
57. come to blows
58. come to grief
60. come to Jesus
61. come to life
62. come to light
64. come to mind
65. come to nothing
66. come to nought
68. come to oneself
69. come to papa
70. come to pass
71. come to power
74. come to terms
77. come to time
78. come unhinged
79. come unstuck
80. come up
81. come up and bite
82. come up roses
85. come what may
87. cross that bridge when one comes to it
91. how come
93. take something as it comes
94. the chickens come home to roost
99. when two Sundays come together
100. worst comes to worst
- Exam level
- CambridgeCambridgeCambridge English QualificationsThe exam suite from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, from A1 Movers up to C2 Proficiency. The benchmark names double as CEFR labels.A1 MoversIELTSIELTSInternational English Language Testing SystemThe 0–9 band test co-owned by the British Council, IDP, and Cambridge. Used for university entry, work, and migration.2.0–3.0TOEFL iBTTOEFL iBTTest of English as a Foreign Language, Internet-Based TestETS's academic English test, the standard route for US university admissions. Scored 0–120, with a 1–6 scale since 2026.1–6 scale: 1.0–1.50–23TOEICTOEICTest of English for International CommunicationETS's workplace English test, big in Japan and Korea. Listening & Reading scores 10–990 and tops out at C1.120–224
- Frequency
- Very common
- Level
- A1 · BeginnerOxford
- Updated
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Traducciones: Kaikki.org (Wiktionary), CC BY-SA 4.0