Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

what goes around comes around

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.85 in modern English

Syllables: what -goes around -comes around
IPA

38

Scrabble Score

25

Letters

3

Syllables

14

Unique Chars

Meaning

proverb

A person's actions, whether good or bad, will often have consequences for that person.

proverb

Things repeat in cycles.

Example Sentences

"So lonely in your bed / Does breakin' me make you feel good? / Guess you don't understand / What goes around, comes around"
"Unfortunately, the main proposal in the current XML era bears a striking resemblance to the CODASYL proposal from the early 1970’s, which failed because of its complexity. Hence, the current era is replaying history, and “what goes around comes around”. Hopefully the next era will be smarter."
"The most important one is the end of the Ajax hype. I’m not sure when it will happen, but I know that it will. What goes around comes around—what once was cool and modern will become old hat and boring."
"Equally, what goes around, comes around. When it comes to investment theories, nothing new under the sun exists because ideas go stale and then get reinvented."

Etymology

First attested in the 1950s in sense 1, originally in African-American English.

Origin

First known use: First attested in the 1950s

Inflected Forms

what go round come round (alternative) what goes round comes round (alternative) what comes around goes around (alternative)

Phrases

bite in the arse bite in the ass circular firing squad come back to bite come back to haunt come full circle fuck around and find out golden rule

Frequently Paired Words

bite in the arse bite in the ass boomerang circular firing squad come back to bite come back to haunt come full circle fuck around and find out

Questions

What does what goes around comes around mean?: A person's actions, whether good or bad, will often have consequences for that person.
Where does what goes around comes around come from?: First known use: First attested in the 1950s.

How to pronounce what goes around comes around

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