Word.ws English Dictionary

come alive

come alive verb: to become responsive and animated.

Verb

come alive (third-person singular simple present comes alive, present participle coming alive, simple past came alive, past participle come alive)

  1. (idiomatic) to become responsive and animated.
    • Southgate's faith was rewarded when Kane got off the mark with England's crucial second in the 2-0 win over Germany. It was the catalyst for the real Kane to come alive in the tournament - and he punished Ukraine in trademark style.2021 July 3, Phil McNulty, “Ukraine 0-4 England”, in BBC Sport

Forms of come alive

third-person singular presentcomes alive
present participlecoming alive
pastcame alive
past participlecome alive

Questions about come alive

What does come alive mean?
Come alive means to become responsive and animated.
What part of speech is come alive?
Come alive is a verb.
What is the past tense of come alive?
The past tense of come alive is came alive.

Words near come alive in the dictionary

  1. come about
  2. come across
  3. come across with
  4. come after
  5. come again
  6. come alive
  7. come aloft
  8. come along
  9. come alongs
  10. come and go
  11. come and gone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: come alive (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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