kingdom come

English

Etymology

From the phrase “Thy kingdom come” from the Lord’s Prayer which is recorded in Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4 in the Bible: see, for example, Matthew 6:10 in the King James Version (spelling modernized): “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heaven.” By these sentences, Jesus seeks the establishment of the rule of God the Father over the Earth in the future.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˌkɪŋdəm ˈkʌm/
• Rhymes: -ʌm
• Hyphenation: king‧dom come

Noun

kingdom come (countable and uncountable, plural kingdoms come or kingdom comes)

1. (uncountable, colloquial) The place that one will go to after one's death; the afterlife.
   1. (figuratively) Death; also, a state of complete annihilation.
   2. (Christianity, specifically) Heaven or paradise.
      • 1843, Alfred Crowquill [pseudonym; Alfred Henry Forrester], “The ‘Plummy’”, in Bentley’s Miscellany, volume XIII, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, part I, page 624:

        "And where are all these brothers and sisters?" demanded the stranger. / "Dead! dead as herrings—gone to kingdom come a precious long time ago.["]

2. (uncountable, Christianity) The rule of God over the world in the future; especially, according to those believing in millenarianism, during a period of peace beginning with the second coming of Jesus Christ and lasting a millennium.
3. (countable, by extension) A future period of happiness, peace, prosperity, and/or great progress; a golden age that is approaching.
   • 2024, Nemo (lyrics and music), “The Code”‎^[1]:

     Somewhere between the O's and ones / That's where I found my kingdom come

Derived terms

• blow to kingdom come

Translations

place that one will go to after one's death — see also afterlife

• Bulgarian: оня свят m (onja svjat)
• Czech: onen svět (cs) m
• German: Jenseits (de) n
• Russian: тот свет (ru) m (tot svet)

death — see death

state of complete annihilation

heaven or paradise — see heaven,‎ paradise

rule of God over the world in the future

future period of happiness, peace, prosperity, and/or great progress

Further reading

• Kingdom Come (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia