how come
/haʊ kʌm/
how come adverb: why; why is it; for what reason or purpose; due to what cause?
Adverb
how come
- Why; why is it; for what reason or purpose; due to what cause?
- How come you didn’t leave when you had the chance?
- Ma: "Jethro, I told you to get rid of them worn-out brakes."
Jethro: "I did, ma! That's how come we ain't got none!"1962, “The Clampetts Strike Oil” (08:19 from the start), in The Beverly Hillbillies, season 1
- Synonyms:
- why come, how's come
how come meaning in Tamil, Tagalog, Persian and Vietnamese
how come in Tamil
- எப்படி, ஏன் ஆயிற்று, ஏன் நேர்ந்தது, அப்படியா, இது, அது ஏன்
how come in Tagalog
- why
- bakit
how come in Persian
- why
- چرا čerâ
how come in Vietnamese
- why
- tại sao, tai sao
Synonyms of how come
Origin of how come
Earliest use in its modern form can also be found in The Trial of Titus Oates, referring to a trial that took place in 1685: :* 1730, F. Hargrave, A Complete Collection of State-Trials and Proceedings for High-Treason, and Other Crimes and Misdemeanours; from the Reign of King Richard II. to the End of the Reign of King George I, volume 4: Mrs. A. Ireland It was on Saturday Morning, as I remember, the 3rd of August, the Saturday after St. Ignatius's Day. L. C. J. How come you remember so particularly, that it was then? In this text, it also co-occurs with forms such as "How come she to lie there?" and "How come you to remember those Days of the Month?". Compare West Frisian hoe kom (“how come”), Dutch hoe komt het (“how comes it; why”), Afrikaans hoekom (“how come; why”). According to Partridge's slang dictionary: US English, 1848, probably from older forms such as "How comes it that... ?" or "How does it come that... ?" and "How did it come to be like this?"
Questions about how come
- What does how come mean?
- How come means why; why is it; for what reason or purpose; due to what cause?
- What is how come in Tamil?
- How come in Tamil is எப்படி, ஏன் ஆயிற்று, ஏன் நேர்ந்தது. See How come meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is how come?
- How come is an adverb.
- How do you pronounce how come?
- How come is pronounced /haʊ kʌm/.
Words near how come in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: how come (page history and authors); how come (Tamil Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-US how come.ogg, en-au-how come.ogg.
Cite this entry: “how come.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/how_come. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.