come about

verb

came about; come about; coming about; comes about

intransitive verb

1

: happen

2

: to change direction

the wind has come about into the north

3

: to shift to a new tack

Synonyms of come about

• happen
• be
• come down
• come
• occur

Examples of come about in a Sentence

how did all this come about?

Recent Examples on the Web

Norway sat off during the second half, holding their 4-5-1 shape, and the Ivory Coast equaliser came about from a system switch and double sub. — Liam Tharme, New York Times, 1 July 2026

Coward came about with the help of the Tax Shelter Measure of the Belgian Federal Government, Casa Kafka & Lumière Invest. — Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 30 June 2026

The pickup comes about six weeks after Nemesis premiered; the show spent its first five weeks in the streamer’s worldwide top 10 for English-language series. — Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 30 June 2026

The crash came about after a skydiving plane crashed on June 14 in Butler, Missouri, killing the pilot and 11 skydivers, officials said. — Bill Hutchinson, ABC News, 28 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for come about

• bailout
• blackout
• blowout
• breakout
• burnout
• buyout
• checkout
• closeout
• cutout
• devout
• dropout
• dugout

Kids Definition

come about

verb

1

: happen sense 2

2

: to change direction

the wind has come about into the north