to come in third
11
1.9
- phrasal verb
:
quedar en tercer lugar
- She worked hard all season and finally came in third in the championship race.
- came in third place
Examples
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Evergreen Boat Club's Justin Jones followed behind, coming in third in front of Sean Gorvy of Crabtree Boat Club.
Blog text (14) -
Derek Fribbs came in third with a final score of 211, only one stroke behind second place.
Blog text (6) -
You guys, I came in third.
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Well, he was a heavy favorite, you know, and I bet him to come in third.
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In case anybody cares, we came in third.
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Last year, Charleston came in third in the world, behind Sydney, Australia, and Florence, Italy.
Blog text (32) -
On the first day, the team came in third place overall, beaten by Alfred in second and Ithaca College in first.
Blog text (32) -
He came in third on America's Got Talent.
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Lake Charles attorney and Democrat Ron Richard came in third, picking up 21.5 percent of the vote.
Blog text (27) -
Charlie Chaplin entered a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest in Monte Carlo and came in third.
Synonyms
139
3.8
To finish a race or competition in a particular position
106
2.4
To finish in a particular way in a competition or event
How High
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to finish in third place' is directly and compositionally derived from 'come' (be placed) + the preposition 'in' + the ordinal 'third', following the common English pattern 'come in + ordinal' (e.g. come in first/second). This structure is cross-linguistically common and follows straightforward positional semantics, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should understand it.
Etymology
Come in third comes from races and contests where people finish in a clear order. Picture a winners' podium with first, second and third places; here come means to arrive at the finish and the person on the third step is behind the first two, so to come in third means 'to finish in third place'.