come what may
"come-what-may" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“come what may” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In spite of anything that might happen; whatever may occur.
Corpus desk
Index EN-come-what-may · come what may · English
come what may · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | come what may |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “come what may” in English
Rare enough to double-check
come what may is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "In spite of anything that might happen; whatever may occur.".
Zero misspellings are on record for come what may in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is come what may, spelled C-O-M-E- -W-H-A-T- -M-A-Y.
Definition
- 1In spite of anything that might happen; whatever may occur.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how come what may appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Come what come may, / Time, and the Houre, runs through the rougheſt Day.
If you vant a more polished sort o' feller, vell and good, have him; but vages or no vages, notice or no notice, board or no board, lodgin' or no lodgin', Sam Veller, as you took from the old inn in the Borough, sticks by you, come what may.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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.