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Glite Dictionary
🔍 Nearly match 🏁 Almost succeed
to come close

to come close

72 2.9
To be almost as good as something in quality or amount
  • phrasal verb
  • /kʌm kloʊs/
translation icon : acercarse a
  • I cannot imagine them even coming close to competing with this.
  • doesn't even come close
  • come close to winning
  • come close to meeting

And no experiment has ever come close to finding a string.

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Examples

  • The two teams came close to winning the championship but fell short in the final game.

  • Nothing else in history even comes close.

    The Case for Christ (2017)

  • No, Was there anything that came close to perfect?

  • No other one ever could come close to you.

  • If you cannot get exactly what you want, is there something else that would come close?

    Academic text (2012)

  • The two presidents actually came close to an agreement, but in the end backed away.

  • There's nothing else out there that even comes close to this place.

    Julian Dorey

  • I've been in the business almost 20 years, and nobody, nobody comes close to you.

    Red Rocket (2021)

  • The only sport for me that comes close to it is downhill skiing.

    Chris Williamson

  • The Labor Party's candidate came close to winning a seat but lost to a KMT candidate.

    Academic text (1993)

Synonyms

to approach
vsto come close
125 3.3

To be nearly the same in quality or amount

is used for almost equal amounts or for almost achieving, not only general similarity
to approximate
vsto come close
14 4.6

To be nearly the same as another thing

is about almost achieving something or matching degree rather than only numeric similarity
to be within striking distance
vsto come close
8 4.7

Close enough to get what you want soon

is about similarity in amount or degree rather than easy imminent attainment
to verge
vsto come close
6 5.1

To come very close to being something

is more about similarity in amount or degree than impending change of state
to come near
vsto come close
2 3.0

To almost do or experience something without doing it

is also used for being almost equal in amount or degree rather than only actions

Antonyms

to differ
152 2.6

To be different from another person or thing in some way

How Close

to equal
245 1.0
to match
841 1.0
to come close
72 2.9
to fall short
64 3.9

Surface Forms

come close infinitive
came close past
come close past participle
coming close present participle
comes close third person singular

Morphology

come + close

The meaning 'to be nearly equal or almost achieve' is directly derived from combining 'come' (arrive at a state) with 'close' (to draw near); the phrase literally conveys approaching nearness in amount, degree, or achievement. This compositional, non-idiomatic pattern is common cross-linguistically and should be understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituents.

Etymology

Come close comes from the picture of come meaning to move toward and close meaning near, like two paintings put side by side that are almost the same. So it means 'to be nearly equal to or very similar in amount or degree'.