come on

1. 1.

   appear or become visible; make a showing

   “She turned up at the funeral”

   “I hope the list key is going to surface again”

   Synonymscome outturn upsurfaceshow up

   Broaderappear
2. 2.

   move towards

   “We were approaching our destination”

   “They are drawing near”

   “The enemy army came nearer and nearer”

   Synonymsapproachneargo updraw neardraw closecome near

   Broadercome

   Narrowerdrive upbear down onedge inclosepush
3. 3.

   develop in a positive way

   “He progressed well in school”

   “My plants are coming along”

   “Plans are shaping up”

   Synonymsprogresscome alongadvanceget onget alongshape up

   Broaderdevelop

   Narrowerclimbleapfrog
4. 4.

   start running, functioning, or operating

   “the lights went on”

   “the computer came up”

   Synonymsgo oncome up

   Broaderstart
5. 5.

   occur or become available

   “water or electricity came on again after the earthquake”

   Broaderget down

Questions about come on

What does come on mean?

come on means "appear or become visible; make a showing". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for come on?

Close synonyms include come out, turn up, surface, show up, approach. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is come on a common word?

come on is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.