FromMiddle Englishcomen,cumen, fromOld Englishcuman, fromProto-West Germanic*kweman, fromProto-Germanic*kwemaną(“to come”), fromProto-Indo-European*gʷémt(“to step”), from*gʷem-(“to step”).

• (Received Pronunciation)IPA^(key):/kʌm/,[kʰɐm],enPR:kŭm

• Audio(Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (General American)IPA^(key):/kʌm/,[kʰʌm],enPR:kŭm

• Audio(General American):

  (file)

• IPA^(key):[kəm],[km̩],[km](rapid speech, as inc'mon)
• Homophone:cum
• Rhymes:-ʌm

come (third-person singular simple presentcomes,present participlecoming,simple pastcameor(now nonstandard)come,past participlecomeor(rare)comen)

1. (intransitive) Tomovenearer to the point ofperspective.

   She’ll becoming round the mountain when shecomes[…]

   • c.1597 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act II, scene i]:

     Look, whocomes yonder?

   • 1859,Alfred Tennyson, “Guinevere”, inIdylls of the King, London:Edward Moxon & Co., […],→OCLC,page253:

     Yet think not that Icome to urge thy crimes, / I did notcome to curse thee, Guinevere,[…]

   1. To move toward the speaker.

      I called the dog, but she wouldn'tcome.

      Stop dawdling andcome here!

   2. To move toward the listener.

      Hold on, I'llcome in a second.

      You should ask the doctor tocome to your house.

   3. To move toward the object that is thefocus of the sentence.

      No-one can find Bertie Wooster when his auntscome to visit.

      Hundreds of thousands of peoplecome to Disneyland every year.

   4. (in subordinate clauses and gerunds) To move toward theagent or subject of the main clause.

      King Cnut couldn't stop the tidecoming.

      He threw the boomerang, whichcame right back to him.

   5. To move toward an unstated agent.

      The butler shouldcome when called.

2. (intransitive) Toarrive.
   • 1667 June 23 (date written; Gregorian calendar),Samuel Pepys,Mynors Bright, transcriber, “June 13th, 1667”, inHenry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor,The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume VI, London:George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge:Deighton Bell & Co., published1895,→OCLC,page364:

     Late at nightcomes Mr. Hudson, the cooper, my neighbour, and tells me that hecome from Chatham this evening at five o'clock, and saw this afternoon "The Royal James," "Oake," and "London," burnt by the enemy with their fire-ships:[…]

     This passage uses thehistorical presenttense.

   • 1897 December (indicated as1898),Winston Churchill, chapter V, inThe Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.:The Macmillan Company; London:Macmillan & Co., Ltd.,→OCLC:

     Thencame a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps,[…], and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.

   • 2013 January 11 [1997], David Bell, Gill Valentine,Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat‎^[1], Routledge,→ISBN, page140:

     So I'd have ate^[sic] when me Dad had ate, sort of thing, I think, you know when hecome home from work, I'd have waited for him, I wouldn't have said I wanted mine at four o'clock[…]

3. (intransitive) Toappear; tomanifest itself; to cause a reaction by manifesting.

   The pain in his legcomes and goes.

   The newscame as a shock.

4. (with an infinitive) Tobegin (to have an opinion or feeling).

   Wecame to believe that he was not so innocent after all.

   Shecame to think of that country as her home.

   • 1897 December (indicated as1898),Winston Churchill, chapter III, inThe Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.:The Macmillan Company; London:Macmillan & Co., Ltd.,→OCLC:

     Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I hadcome to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, andcame very near to saying so.

5. (with an infinitive) Todo somethingby chance orunintentionally.

   Could you tell me how the documentcame to be discovered?

6. (intransitive) To take a position relative to something else in asequence.

   Which lettercomes before Y?   Wintercomes after autumn.

8. (intransitive, often vulgar,slang) To achieveorgasm; tocum; toejaculate.
   • 2004,Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 2, inThe Line of Beauty […], London:Picador,→ISBN:

     Nick was more and more seriously absorbed, but then just before hecame he had a brief vision of himself, as if the trees and bushes had rolled away and all the lights of London shone in on him: little Nick Guest from Barwick, Don and Dot Guest's boy, fucking a stranger in a Notting Hill garden at night.

   • 2008,Philip Roth,Indignation:

     The sheer unimaginableness ofcoming into her mouth — ofcoming into anything other than the air or a tissue or a dirty sock — was an allurement too stupendous for a novice to forswear.

   Shecame after a few minutes.

   Come in me!

9. (intransitive, of milk) To becomebutter by beingchurned.
   • 1662 (indicated as1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, inHudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London:[…]John Martyn andHenry Herringman, […], published1678; republished inA[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor,Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:University Press,1905,→OCLC:

     when butter does refuse tocome

10. (copulative,figuratively) Toapproach orreach a state of being or accomplishment.

    Theycame very close to leaving on time.   His test scorescame close to perfect.

    One of the screwscame loose, and the skateboard fell apart.

11. (figuratively, withto) To take a particularapproach orpoint of view in regard to something.

    Hecame to SF literature a confirmed technophile, and nothing made him happier than to read a manuscript thick with imaginary gizmos and whatzits.

12. (copulative,fossil word) Tobecome, toturn out to be.

    He was a dreamcome true.

    • c.1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act V, scene ii]:

      Howcome you thus estranged?

    • 1910,The Poster‎^[2], Poster Advertising Association, Notable Poster Illustrations, page17:

      He saw a gnarled old woman vigorously scrubbing a very dirty boy, who squirmed under the rough usage and screwed up his eyes and mouth to keep out the soap. "Drat the boy," cried the old lady, wrathfully. "Stand still, do! Will he evercome clean?"

13. (intransitive) To be supplied, or made available; to exist.

    He's as tough as theycome.

    Our milkshakescome in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavours.

    A new sports car doesn'tcome cheap.

14. (slang) To carry through; to succeed in.

    You can'tcome any tricks here.

15. (intransitive) Tohappen.

    Synonyms:come about,occur,take place

    This kind of accidentcomes when you are careless.

    • 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, inThe Economist, volume411, number8891:

      But out of sight is out of mind. And that[…]means that many old sewers have been neglected and are in dire need of repair. If that repair does notcome in time, the result is noxious and potentially hazardous.

16. (intransitive, withfrom or sometimesof) To have as anorigin,originate.
    1. To have a certainsocialbackground.
       • 2011, Kate Gramich, chapter 3, inKate Roberts, University of Wales Press,→ISBN, page46:

         While Kate Robertscame from a poor background and, later in life, in the post-Second World War period suffered from severe money shortages, in the early 1930s, she and her husband must have counted themselves relatively well off, particularly in comparison with their neighbours in Tonypandy.

    2. To be or have been a resident or native.

       Where did youcome from?

    3. To have been brought up by or employed by.

       Shecomes from a good family.

       Hecomes from a disreputable legal firm.

    4. Tobegin (at a certain location); toradiate orstem (from).

       The rivercomes from Bear Lake.

       Where does this roadcome from?

17. (intransitive, ofgrain) Togerminate.
18. (transitive,informal) Topretend to be; to behave in the manner of; to assume therole of.

    Don’tcome the innocent victim. We all know who’s to blame here.

    • 1838, Boz [pseudonym;Charles Dickens],Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume(please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London:Richard Bentley, […],→OCLC:

      “Hush! hush! Mr. Sikes,” said the Jew, trembling; “don’t speak so loud!” / “None of your mistering,” replied the ruffian; “you always mean mischief when youcome that. You know my name: out with it! I shan’t disgrace it when the time comes.”

    • 1950,Norman Lindsay,Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page157:

      Ponds drew a chair to the table and seated himself and poured Mrs Dibble a gin, saying solemnly, "Now then, Mrs Dibble, what's it all about?" "I'm upholding my rights agen that woman that's beencoming the high and mighty over me like I ain't got the right to say a word in me own business."

• In its general sense,come specifically marks motiontowards thedeictic centre, (whether explicitly stated or not). Its counterpart, usually referring to motion away from or not involving the deictic centre, isgo. For example, the sentence "Come to the tree" implies contextually that the speaker is already at the tree — "Go to the tree" often implies that the speaker is elsewhere. Either the speaker or the listener can be the deictic centre — the sentences "I will go to you" and "I will come to you" are both valid, depending on the exact nuances of the context. When there is no clear speaker or listener, the deictic centre is usually the focus of the sentence or the topic of the piece of writing. "Millions of peoplecame to America from Europe" would be used in an article about America, but "Millions of peoplewent to America from Europe" would be used in an article about Europe.

• When used with adverbs of location,come is usually paired withhere orhither. In interrogatives,come usually indicates a question about source — "Where are you coming from?" — whilego indicates a question about destination — "Where are you going?" or "Where are you going to?"

• A few old texts usecomen as the past participle. Also, in some dialects, like rural Scots and rural Midlands dialects, the formcomen is still occasionally in use, so phrases like the following can still be encountered there —Sa thoo bist comen heyr to nim min 'orse frae mee, then?[sä ðuː bɪst cʊmn̩ hiər tə nɪm miːn ɔːrs frə miː | d̪ɛn] (so you have come here to steal my horse from me, then?).

• Formerly the verbbe was used as the auxiliary instead ofhave, for example,Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, andare come to worship him.

• The phrase "dream come true" is a set phrase; the verb "come" in the sense "become" is archaic outside of some set phrases likecome about,come alive,come clean,come loose,come true andcome undone.

• The collocationscome with andcome along meanaccompany, used as "Do you want to come with me?" and "Do you want to come along?" In the Midwestern American dialect, "come with" can occur without a following object, as in "Do you want to come with?" In this dialect, "with" can also be used in this way with some other verbs, such as "take with". Examples of this may be found in plays by ChicagoanDavid Mamet, such asAmerican Buffalo.^[1] This objectless use is not permissible in other dialects.

• The meaning in the sense ofto ejaculate ororgasm is often considered vulgar slang. Many style guides and editors recommend the spellingcome for verb uses while strictly allowing the spellingcum for the noun. Both spellings are sometimes found in either the noun or verb sense, however. Others prefer to distinguish in formality, usingcome for any formal usage andcum only in slang, erotic or pornographic contexts.^[2]

• leave,go,depart,exit,withdraw,retreat,flee

• c'mere
• c'min
• c'mon

• Solombala English:комъ(kom)

• cam'st
• kingdom come

come (uncountable)

1. (obsolete)Coming,arrival;approach.
   • 1869, RD Blackmoore,Lorna Doone, section II:

     “If we count three before thecome of thee, thwacked thou art, and must go to the women.”

2. (vulgar,slang)Semen

   When a man uses a condom during sex, he takes all of hiscome with him, preventing her from getting pregnant.

3. (vulgar,slang) Femaleejaculatorydischarge.

• The meaning ofsemen or female ejaculatory discharge is considered vulgar slang. Many style guides and editors recommend the spellingcome for verb uses while strictly allowing the spellingcum for the noun. Both spellings are sometimes found in either the noun or verb sense, however. Others prefer to distinguish in formality, usingcome for any formal usage andcum only in slang, erotic or pornographic contexts.^[3]

• cum

come

1. Used to indicate a point in time at or after which a stated event or situation occurs.

   Leave it to settle for about three months and,come Christmas time, you'll have a delicious concoction to offer your guests.

   Come retirement, their Social Security may turn out to be a lot less than they counted on.

   Come summer, we would all head off to the coast.

   • 1932,Delos W. Lovelace,King Kong, published1965, page14:

     "And a long sea voyage that starts at six o'clockcome morning."

   • 2012 November 10, Amy Lawrence, “Fulham's Mark Schwarzer saves late penalty in dramatic draw at Arsenal”, inThe Guardian‎^[3]:

     Come the final whistle, Mikel Arteta lay flabbergasted on the turf.

   • 2022 October 5, Beatriz Colon, “Celine Dion ushers in holiday season with exciting music news”, inHello! Magazine‎^[4]:

     She announced in April thatcome 10 February 2023, her songs would be featured in a romantic comedy titledIt's All Coming Back To Me[…]

• Came is sometimes used instead when the events occurred in the past.

come

2. (dated orformal)Anexclamation to expressannoyance.

   Come come! Stop crying.

   Come now! You must eat it.

3. (dated orformal)Anexclamation to expressencouragement, or to precede a request.

   Come come! You can do it.

   Come now! It won't bite you.

   • c.1610–1611 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act II, scene i]:

     Her. What wisdome stirs amongst you?Come Sir, now
     I am for you againe: 'Pray you sit by vs,
     And tell's a Tale.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson],In Memoriam, London:Edward Moxon, […],→OCLC, Canto XVIII,page30:

     Come then, pure hands, and bear the head
     ⁠That sleeps or wears the mask of sleep,
     ⁠Andcome, whatever loves to weep,
     And hear the ritual of the dead.

   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, inZollenstein, New York, N.Y.:D. Appleton & Company,→OCLC:

     “I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.

Seecomma.

come (pluralcomes)

2. (typography,obsolete)Alternative form ofcommain itsmedievaluse as amiddot ⟨·⟩serving as aform ofcolon.
   • 1824, J. Johnson,Typographia:

     There be five manner of points and divisions most used among cunning men; the which if they be well used, make the sentence very light and easy to be understood, both to the reader and hearer: and they be these,virgil,—come,—parenthesis,—plain point,—interrogative.

   • 1842, F. Francillon,An Essay on Punctuation‎^[5],page 9:

     Whoever introduced the several points, it seems that afull-point, a point calledcome, answering to ourcolon-point, a point calledvirgil answering to ourcomma-point, theparenthesis-points andinterrogative-point, were used at the close of the fourteenth, or beginning of the fifteenth century.

• come stà(etymologically unrelated)

• ECMO,MECO,meco-

• IPA^(key):/ˈkome/[ˈko.me]
• Rhymes:-ome
• Syllabification:co‧me

come

1. third-personsingularpresentindicative ofcomer

come

1. Alternative form ofcomo

come

1. Alternative form ofcomo

come

1. inflection ofcomer:
   1. third-personsingularpresentindicative
   2. second-personsingularimperative

• com'(apocopic, sometimes before a vowel)
• com,con(apocopic,obsolete)
• comed(archaic, before vowels)

Inherited fromLate Latinquōmodo et.

• (how)IPA^(key):/ˈko.me/,(traditional)/ˈko.me/^*
• (like)IPA^(key):/ˈko.me/^*

  • Audio:

    (file)

• Rhymes:-ome
• Hyphenation:có‧me

come

1. how

   Come stai? ―How are you? (informal)

   Come sta? ―How are you? (formal)

2. as,like

   blucome il mare ―as blueas the sea

3. such as

• come mai
• come no
• come se

come

1. as soon as

   come arrivò… ―as soon as he arrived…

• come non detto

• come in Treccani.it –Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
• come inLuciano Canepari,Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

• meco

• (Classical Latin)IPA^(key):/ˈkoː.me/,[ˈkoːmɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical)IPA^(key):/ˈko.me/,[ˈkɔːme]

cōme

1. nominative/accusative/vocativeneutersingular ofcōmis

• “come”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

FromOld Englishcyme, fromProto-West Germanic*kumi, fromProto-Germanic*kumiz.

The predominance of/u/,/oː/ is due to the influence of the related verbcomen.

• cume,coom,coome
• kime,keome(Early Middle English)

• IPA^(key):/ˈkum(ə)/,/ˈkoːm(ə)/

come (pluralcomes)

1. arrival,coming

• English:come(obsolete)
• Scots:come

• “cǒme, cọ̄me,n.(1).”, inMED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007.

FromOld Englishcuma, fromcuman(“to come”).

• IPA^(key):/ˈkum(ə)/

come (pluralcomes)

1. guest,stranger

• “cǒme,n.(2).”, inMED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007.

come (pluralcomes)

1. Alternative form ofcoumb

come (pluralcomes)

1. Alternative form ofcomb

• IPA^(key):/ˈkoː.me/

cōme

1. inflection ofcuman:
   1. second-personsingularpreteriteindicative
   2. singularpreteritesubjunctive

Inherited fromLate Latinquōmodo et.

• comme,conme
• con,cum

come

1. how
2. as,like
   • 12th or 13th century, Thibaut de Champagne,Ausi conme unicorne sui:

     Ausiconme unicorne sui

     I am just like a unicorn.

• coment

• Middle French:comme
  • French:comme
• Norman:comme,coumme

• “come1”, inDEAF: Dictionnaire Étymologique de l'Ancien Français,Heidelberg:Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften,1968-.

FromLatincoma.

comeoblique singular, f (oblique pluralcomes,nominative singularcome,nominative pluralcomes)

1. head of hair, mane

• Middle French:come

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “cŏma”, inFranzösisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume2: C Q K,page935

• Hyphenation:co‧me

come

1. inflection ofcomer:
   1. third-personsingularpresentindicative
   2. second-personsingularimperative

• IPA^(key):/ˈkome/[ˈko.me]
• Rhymes:-ome
• Syllabification:co‧me

come

1. inflection ofcomer:
   1. third-personsingularpresentindicative
   2. second-personsingularimperative

come

1. Alternative form ofcoome
   • 1867,GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:

     Come adh o' mee gazb.

     Come out of my breath.

   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, inSONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number14, page90:

     Come w' ouse, gosp Learry, theezil an Melchere;

     Come with us, gossip Larry, yourself and Miles;

   • 1867, “CASTEALE CUDDE'S LAMENTATION”, inSONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 1, page102:

     Ye nyporès aul,come hark to mee,

     Ye neighbours all,come hark to me,

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor,A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published1867,page41