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:^[1] 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.”^[2] 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)

(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.["]
(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.
(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

References

^ “kingdom come, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2017; “kingdom come, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
^ The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1611, →OCLC, Matthew 6:10, column 2: “Thy kingdome come. Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heauen.”