come in

What it means

To enter a place, especially a room or building. It's also used for trains, buses, and ships arriving, for tides rising, and for news or information arriving from somewhere.

Words like “come in” are exactly the kind of vocabulary our English vocabulary size test measures — find out how many English words you know.

Examples

• Come in and shut the door behind you, please.
• The next train comes in at platform three.
• Reports are coming in about a fire downtown.
• What time does the tide come in today?

Where it comes from

Inseparable. The phrase 'come in!' is the standard polite response when someone knocks at a door. The choice between 'come in' and 'go in' depends on the speaker's location: use 'come in' if you're inside, 'go in' if you're outside.

Related phrasal verbs