Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

come by

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.73 in modern English

Syllables: come -by
IPA

15

Scrabble Score

6

Letters

2

Syllables

6

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To obtain; to get, especially by chance or involuntarily.

Transitive verb

verb

To come near to; to pass; to visit.

Intransitive verb

intj

A command to a sheepdog to move clockwise around the sheep.

Example Sentences

"A loyal friend is hard to come by."
"Somehow he came by a substantial fortune."
"They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too."
"For example, during the early days of construction, some landowners and local residents felt they were not being kept up to date with what was happening on a day-to-day basis, or that information wasn't always easy to come by."
"Your beau came by while you were shopping."

Usage

Inflected Forms

comes by (present, singular) coming by (participle, present) came by (past)

Frequently Paired Words

away-to-me

Synonyms

come into drop by drop in

Questions

What does come by mean?: To obtain; to get, especially by chance or involuntarily.

How to pronounce come by

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “come by”.
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