Word.ws English Dictionary

come to terms with

come to terms with verb: to resolve a conflict with.

Verb

come to terms with (third-person singular simple present comes to terms with, present participle coming to terms with, simple past came to terms with, past participle come to terms with)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To resolve a conflict with.
    • […] some hope of their being able to come to terms with him, and thus prevent them from joining with the Independents. The other request was that he would allow William Moray to come to him, in order to oblige the Scots.1898, Jean de Montereul, Pompone de Bellièvre, Pierre de Bellièvre, edited by J. G. Fotheringham, The Diplomatic Correspondence of Jean de Montereul and the Brothers de Bellièvre, volume 1, page 108
  2. (idiomatic, transitive) To accept or resign oneself to something emotionally painful.
    • She finally came to terms with her addictions at her third rehab clinic and rarely drank again.
    • Until he comes to terms with his traumatic experience, he will not be able to move on.

Forms of come to terms with

third-person singular presentcomes to terms with
present participlecoming to terms with
pastcame to terms with
past participlecome to terms with

Questions about come to terms with

What does come to terms with mean?
Come to terms with means to resolve a conflict with.
What part of speech is come to terms with?
Come to terms with is a verb.
What is the past tense of come to terms with?
The past tense of come to terms with is came to terms with.

Words near come to terms with in the dictionary

  1. come to power
  2. come to rest
  3. come to someone's aid
  4. come to someone's rescue
  5. come to terms
  6. come to terms with
  7. come to that
  8. come to the party
  9. come to the scratch
  10. come to think of it
  11. come to time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: come to terms with (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-come to terms with.ogg.

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