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coming

KUM-ing/ˈkʌmɪŋ/

Noun pluralcomings

5 meanings of coming

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  1. 1
    verb
    Present participle and gerund of come.

    Guests kept coming through the door all evening.

    Coming downstairs each morning, she would check the mail.

    Note

    Two old endings meet in one spelling here. The participle descends from Old English cumende, with the -ende that once marked participles. The gerund carries the separate -ing of verbal nouns, and Middle English let the two fall together. With be it forms the progressive, and its direction follows the conversation: "I'm coming!" answers someone calling and means moving toward the listener.

  2. 2
    adjective
    Approaching in time; belonging to the future, especially the near future; next.

    The coming election has dominated every conversation lately.

    She prepared carefully for the challenges of the coming months.

    Similarupcoming, forthcoming, approaching, next, impending

    Oppositepast, previous, last

    Note

    An adjective of time that usually sits before its noun, often after this or the: this coming year, the coming exhibition, Byron's "your coming days and years." With days of the week it can also follow the noun, so the Sunday coming stands beside this coming Sunday, both naming the next one ahead. It does not compare. One event cannot be more coming than another.

  3. 3
    nouncountable
    The act or event of arriving somewhere; an arrival.

    The coming of the railroad transformed the small town.

    Villagers marked the coming of the rains with a festival.

    Similararrival, advent, approach, onset, appearance

    Oppositedeparture, going

    Note

    The verbal noun becomes a countable thing and takes a plural, comings. In the singular it usually leads into an of-phrase, as in the coming of the railroad. In the plural it pairs naturally with goings for the traffic of a busy household. Samuel Beckett's Watt (1953) stretches that pair into "the comings, and the stayings, and the goings."

  4. 4
    adjective
    Newly in fashion; advancing toward maturity, success, or recognition.

    Critics praised him as the coming name in modern architecture.

    The gallery showcased several coming artists this spring.

    Similarrising, promising, emerging, budding

    Oppositeestablished

Less common meaning

  1. 5
    adjectiveobsolete
    Ready to come or yield; compliant and eager to please; affectionate.
    How coming to the poet every muse!
    1733, Alexander Pope, [Imitations of Horace]
    That he had been so affectionate a husband, was no ill argument to the coming dowager, that he might prove as kind to her.
    1697, John Dryden, “Dedication of the Æneis”
    Note

    Readers meet this sense in older literature and should not use it today. It describes someone ready to yield. In John Dryden's dedication to The Works of Virgil (1697), "the coming dowager" is a widow willing to be won. Alexander Pope imagines every muse as coming to the poet. The warmth could tip into immodest eagerness, so the word often carried a hint of disapproval.

coming is a form of come

come, verb: To move or travel toward the speaker, the listener, or the person or place being talked about. Full entry

Forms
come also past participlecomes he/she/itcoming -ing formcame past tense
Spelling
come → coming: drop the e, add -ing

Practice

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Origins

Meaning 1

From Middle English cominge, from Old English cumende, the present participle of the verb "to come," equivalent to "come" plus the "-ing" ending. It is related to Dutch komend, German kommend, Swedish kommande, and Icelandic komandi.

Meanings 2–5

From Middle English coming, equivalent to "come" plus the "-ing" gerundive ending.