From Middle English comen, cumen, from Old English cuman, from Proto-West Germanic *kweman, from Proto-Germanic *kwemaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷémt, from *gʷem-.

Cognate from Proto-Germanic with Scots cum, Saterland Frisian kuume, Western Frisian komme, Low German kamen, Dutch komen, German kommen, Norwegian Bokmål - and Danish komme, Swedish komma, Norwegian Nynorsk - and Icelandic koma.

Cognate from PIE via Latin veniō ("come, arrive") with many Romance language terms (e.

Cognate to English basis, from PIE via Ancient Greek.

• (RP) IPA: /kʌm/, [kʰɐm], enPR: kŭm
• (America) IPA: /kʌm/, [kʰʌm], enPR: kŭm
• IPA: [kəm], [km̩], [km] (rapid speech, as in c'mon)

come (comes, present participle coming; simple past came, past participle come)

1. (intransitive) To move from further away to nearer to.

   She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes […]

   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene i]:

     Look, who comes yonder?

   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Guinevere”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC ↗, page 253 ↗:

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

   1. To move towards the speaker.

      I called the dog, but she wouldn't come.

      Stop dawdling and come here!

   2. To move towards the listener.

      Hold on, I'll come in a second.

      You should ask the doctor to come to your house.

   3. To move towards the object that is the focus of the sentence.

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

      Hundreds of thousands of people come to Disneyland every year.

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

      King Cnut couldn't stop the tide coming.

      He threw the boomerang, which came right back to him.

   5. To move towards an unstated agent.

      The butler should come when called.

2. (intransitive) To arrive.
   • 1667 June 23 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “June 13th, 1667”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume VI, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1895, →OCLC ↗, page 364 ↗:

     Late at night comes Mr. Hudson, the cooper, my neighbour, and tells me that he come 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 the historical present tense.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:

     Then came 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.

3. (intransitive) To appear; to manifest itself; to cause a reaction by manifesting.

   The pain in his leg comes and goes.

   The news came as a shock.

   • 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC ↗:

     when butter does refuse to come [i.e., to form]

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

   We came to believe that he was not so innocent after all.

   She came to think of that country as her home.

5. (with an infinitive) To do something by chance, without intending to do it.

   Could you tell me how the document came to be discovered?

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

   Which letter comes before Y?   Winter comes after autumn.

7. (intransitive, often vulgar, slang) To achieve orgasm; to cum; to ejaculate.
   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 2, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

     Nick was more and more seriously absorbed, but then just before he came 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.

   He came after a few minutes.

   Come in me!

8. (intransitive, of milk) To become butter by being churned.
9. (copulative, figuratively, with close) To approach a state of being or accomplishment.

   They came very close to leaving on time.   His test scores came close to perfect.

   One of the screws came loose, and the skateboard fell apart.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter III, in The 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 had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.

10. (figuratively, with to) To take a particular approach or point of view in regard to something.

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

11. (copulative, fossil word) To become, to turn out to be.

    He was a dream come true.

    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour's Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene ii]:

      How come you thus estranged?

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

    He's as tough as they come.

    Our milkshakes come in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavours.

    A new sports car doesn't come cheap.

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

    You can't come any tricks here.

14. (intransitive) To happen.

    Synonyms: come about, occur, take place

    This kind of accident comes when you are careless.

15. (intransitive, with from or sometimes of) To have as an origin, originate.
    1. To have a certain social background.
    2. To be or have been a resident or native.

       Where did you come from?

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

       She comes from a good family.

       He comes from a disreputable legal firm.

    4. To begin (at a certain location); to radiate or stem (from).

       The river comes from Bear Lake.

       Where does this road come from?

16. (intransitive, of grain) To germinate.
17. (transitive, informal) To pretend to be; to behave in the manner of.

    Don’t come 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 you come that. You know my name: out with it! I shan’t disgrace it when the time comes.”

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

• c'mere
• c'min
• c'mon

• French: venir
• German: kommen
• Italian: venire
• Portuguese: vir
• Russian: приходи́ть
• Spanish: venir

• French: arriver
• German: kommen, ankommen
• Italian: arrivare, apparire, manifestarsi
• Portuguese: chegar
• Russian: прибыва́ть

• French: venir

• French: jouir, venir
• German: kommen
• Italian: venire, venirsene
• Portuguese: gozar, vir-se
• Russian: конча́ть
• Spanish: correrse, venirse, acabar

• French: devenir
• Russian: станови́ться

• French: s’avérer, se révéler
• Russian: ока́зываться

come (uncountable)

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

     “If we count three before the come 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 his come with him, preventing her from getting pregnant.

3. (vulgar, slang) Female ejaculatory discharge.

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.

1. (dated or formal) An exclamation to express annoyance.

   Come come! Stop crying.

   Come now! You must eat it.

2. (dated or formal) An exclamation to express encouragement, 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”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →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, page 30 ↗:

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

   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, 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”.

See comma.

come (plural comes)

1. (typography, obsolete) Alternative form of comma in its medieval use as a middot ⟨·⟩ serving as a form of colon.