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Glite Dictionary
✅ To reach a result 💡 To realize 😵‍💫 To wake up ➕ To add up
to come to

to come to

∞ 3.1
Reach a decision or understanding
  • phrasal verb
  • /kʌm tu/
translation icon : llegar a
  • You could come to dinner.
  • come to terms
  • come to a conclusion
  • come to an end

Now we come to a major design point.

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Examples

  • So they walked and walked until they came to an area with more sidewalk traffic.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Daisy apparently had no alternative but to come to Canton and live in her husband's home.

    Academic text (2013)

  • So now it has come to the end of our beach day.

  • I'll come to the point, by God.

    The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970)

  • After they had traveled for three days, they came to a fork in the road.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Shortly after they started traveling west again, they came to a fairly large, fast stream.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • But vaccines are the best protection we have when it comes to certain illnesses.

    Academic text (2015)

  • Thus, it is unsurprising that judges frequently come to different conclusions when applying the same legal standards.

    Academic text (2017)

  • After much deliberation, the committee has finally come to a decision about the new policy.

  • After weeks of confusion, he has come to realize the importance of studying regularly.

Synonyms

to get to
vsto come to
∞ 2.4

Reach a goal, place, or state after effort

is neutral about effort and focuses on becoming that condition
to reach
vsto come to
∞ 1.1

Get to a place, level, or goal after effort

focuses on reaching a condition or result rather than physical places
to arrive at
vsto come to
320 2.1

Reach a place, for example a station, or come to a decision after thinking

refers to reaching a condition or result rather than physical places
to attain
vsto come to
110 3.9

To reach a level, place, or goal after hard work

does the same but without stressing success or effort
to strike
vsto come to
104 4.7

To reach an agreement or a fair balance

applies more broadly to any condition or result beyond agreements or balances

Antonyms

to miss
158 1.3

To be without something needed or expected

to fall short
64 3.9

Fail to reach the level people expect

How Fully

to achieve
∞ 2.3
to attain
110 3.9
to come to
∞ 3.1
to reach
∞ 1.1
to move ahead
61 2.7
to begin
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

come + to

The verb 'come' carries the meaning 'arrive at a state' and the particle/preposition 'to' marks the target, so 'come to (a realization)' can be interpreted as 'arrive at a realization' — a composition that a learner who knows the constituents can often infer. However, 'come to' is polysemous (e.g. 'regain consciousness', 'amount to') and the precise idiomatic usage with abstract nouns requires familiarity with the collocation, so it is not fully predictable in all contexts.

Etymology

Come to comes from the simple image of come as moving and to as reaching a point, like walking until you 'come to' a decision or place, so it means 'to reach' or 'get to' a particular state or result.