coming

/ˈkʌmɪŋ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Midlands/ˈkʊmɪŋ/

coming is the present participle and gerund of come.

Adjective

coming (not comparable)

Approaching; of the future, especially the near future; the next.
- We expect great things from you this coming year.
- She will have two or three paintings in the coming exhibition.
Synonyms:

unborn
Newly in fashion; advancing into maturity or achievement.
- Ergonomic wallets are the coming thing.
(obsolete) Ready to come; complaisant; fond.
- How coming to the poet every muse!1733–1737, Alexander Pope, [Imitations of Horace], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley [et al.]
- That he had been so affectionate a husband, was no ill argument to the coming dowager, that he might prove as kind to her.1697, John Dryden, “Dedication of the Æneis”, in The Works of Virgil

Meaning of come

Verb

come (third-person singular simple present comes, present participle coming, simple past came or (dialectal) come, past participle come or (dialectal) came or comen)

(intransitive) To move nearer to the point of perspective.
- She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes the wrong way […]
1. (intransitive) To move toward the speaker.
  - I called the dog, but she wouldn't come.
2. (intransitive) To move toward the listener.
  - Hold on, I'll come in a second.
3. (intransitive) To move toward the object that is the focus of the sentence.
  - No-one can find Bertie Wooster when his aunts come to visit.
4. (intransitive) To move toward the agent or subject of the main clause.
  - King Cnut couldn't stop the tide coming.
5. (intransitive) To move toward an unstated agent.
  - The butler should come when called.

See all 31 meanings of come

Interjection

coming

(by ellipsis) Used to express that one is on the way.
- — FBI! Open up!
- — Coming

Noun

coming (plural comings)

The act of arriving; an arrival.
- The/this Sunday coming / coming Sunday.
- But he found it strange to think […] of all these little things that cluster round the comings, and the stayings, and the goings, that he would know nothing of them, nothing of what they had been, as long as he lived, […]1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC

Synonyms of coming

unborn

Forms of coming

plural	comings

Origin of coming

From Middle English cominge, comynge, comande, from Old English cumende, from Proto-Germanic *kwemandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *kwemaną (“to come”), equivalent to come + -ing (present participle ending). Cognate with Dutch komend (“coming”), German kommend (“coming”), Swedish kommande (“coming”), Icelandic komandi (“coming”).

From Middle English coming, commyng, cumming, equivalent to come + -ing (gerundive ending).

Words formed from coming

Phrases with coming

181 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with coming

Questions about coming

What does coming mean?: Coming means used to express that one is on the way.
What is coming the present participle and gerund of?: Coming is the present participle and gerund of come.
What part of speech is coming?: Coming can be an interjection, a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce coming?: Coming is pronounced /ˈkʌmɪŋ/.

Words near coming in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: coming (page history and authors); come (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-coming.ogg.

Cite this entry: “coming.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coming. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.