as they come

adv

"as-they-come" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“as they come” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an adverb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - As it is possible to be.

Key facts for as they come
PropertyValue
Headwordas they come
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdverb
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “as they come” sits in English frequency

as they come falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for as they come is 12 letters long, classified as an adverb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "As it is possible to be.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for as they come, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is as they come, spelled A-S- -T-H-E-Y- -C-O-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    As it is possible to be.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "as they come"?
"as they come" is spelled A-S- -T-H-E-Y- -C-O-M-E.
What does "as they come" mean?
As an adverb, "as they come" means: As it is possible to be.
What language does "as they come" come from?
"as they come" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “as they come”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is A-S- -T-H-E-Y- -C-O-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list