come

/kʌm/

//kʌm// verb

"come" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“come” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #161. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#161
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords
5
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To move nearer to the point of perspective.

Corpus desk

Index EN-come · come · English

come · rank #161 · 5 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #161
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 5 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH AM

Nearest frequency peer: AM (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbourhood for “come”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “come” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

come vs cop
50% similar
come vs con
50% similar
come vs cow
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for come
PropertyValue
Headwordcome
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/kʌm/
Letters4
Frequency rank#161
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “come” sits in English frequency

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).comelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “AM” (#160), “part” (#162), “4” (#159). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 5 spelling variants around come (IPA /kʌm/), averb. Corpus frequency is #161 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 25 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for come, with forms such as "ccome", "cmoe", and "coem". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cop", "con", "cow", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: 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… The correct English form is come, spelled C-O-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    To move nearer to the point of perspective.
  2. 2
    To move nearer to the point of perspective.
  3. 3
    To move nearer to the point of perspective.
  4. 4
    To move nearer to the point of perspective.
  5. 5
    To move nearer to the point of perspective.
  6. 6
    To move nearer to the point of perspective.
  7. 7
    To arrive.
  8. 8
    To appear; to manifest itself; to cause a reaction by manifesting.
  9. 9
    To begin (to have an opinion or feeling).
  10. 10
    To do something by chance or unintentionally.
  11. 11
    To take a position relative to something else in a sequence.
  12. 12
    To achieve orgasm; to cum; to ejaculate.
  13. 13
    To become butter by being churned.
  14. 14
    To approach or reach a state of being or accomplishment.
  15. 15
    To take a particular approach or point of view in regard to something.
  16. 16
    To become, to turn out to be (often in set phrases and certain collocations).
  17. 17
    To be supplied, or made available; to exist.
  18. 18
    To carry through; to succeed in.
  19. 19
    To happen.
  20. 20
    To have as an origin, originate.
  21. 21
    To have as an origin, originate.
  22. 22
    To have as an origin, originate.
  23. 23
    To have as an origin, originate.
  24. 24
    To germinate.
  25. 25
    To pretend to be; to behave in the manner of; to assume the role of.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how come appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes the wrong way […]
  2. Look, who comes yonder?

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”).

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccome
  • cmoe
  • coem
  • comme
  • ocme

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of come - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

ccome1cmoe2coem2comme1ocme2
Edit distance from "come"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "come"?
"come" is spelled C-O-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is /kʌm/.
What does "come" mean?
As a verb, "come" means: To move nearer to the point of perspective.
What words are commonly confused with "come"?
"come" is commonly confused with "cop", "con", "cow". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "come"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "come" is /kʌm/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "come"?
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 Prot... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "come", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).

What to do next

You've looked up "come". Here's where to go from here.

  • "come" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "cop". View pair
  • 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
  • Usage frequency rank #161 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more English words in the "C" letter cohort. C–Z browse
  • PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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