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come-on

noun

Simple meaning

A statement or sometimes an action reflecting sexual or romantic interest.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kuhmahn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkʌˈmɑn

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. informal

    A statement or sometimes an action reflecting sexual or romantic interest.

  2. informal

    Something intended to attract, as in an advertisement.

  3. theaterslang

    A bad actor whose talents do not extend far beyond walking onto the stage.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Typical Use
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A statement or sometimes an action reflecting sexual or romantic interest.

Used this way, come-on is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in relationships and everyday conversation contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Casual
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Playful
Usage feel
Casual and conversational

Where it naturally appears

  • Relationships
  • Everyday conversation
  • Social media/informal writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: statement or sometimes an action reflecting sexual

hook

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.