To come up with something means to think of or produce an idea, plan, answer or solution, often through effort or creativity.
What Does Come Up With Mean?
Taken literally, the words create a wonderfully unhelpful picture: an idea comes up... and somehow with gets involved too. Where does it come up from? Nobody knows.
After an hour of brainstorming, the team finally came up with a name for the app.
Fortunately, you don't need to decode the individual words. Come up with works as a unit: think of or produce an idea, plan, answer or solution.
Natural Examples
The scientists came up with a clever way to test the theory.
I can't come up with a good excuse for being late again.
She came up with the idea during a walk, of all places.
They need to come up with the rent money by Friday.
Can You Separate It?
No. Come up with is inseparable: all three words stay together, and the object always comes after the whole phrase, whether it's a noun or a pronoun.
✅ She came up with a solution.
✅ She came up with it.
❌ ~~She came it up with.~~
How to Use It
Come up with is followed by the thing you've thought of, suggested, found or managed to produce: an idea, a plan, an answer, an excuse, a name, or even money.
- Ideas and plans: He came up with a brilliant plan for the trip.
- Solutions and answers: Can you come up with a better explanation?
- Excuses: She always comes up with a new excuse for missing practice.
- Money, under pressure: They had to come up with the deposit by the end of the month.
It changes like a normal verb through come:
- I come up with new ideas all the time.
- We're coming up with a plan right now.
- He came up with the answer in seconds.
Common Mistakes
Don't drop "with."
❌ She came up a great idea.
✅ She came up with a great idea.
"Come up with" vs. "think up": close, but not identical.
Think up means mentally inventing something, like an idea, plan, excuse or solution. Come up with overlaps with that meaning but is broader, because it can also mean managing to find or produce something needed, especially money. He thought up a plan and he came up with a plan both work; he came up with the rent money works too, but he thought up the rent money doesn't.
In a Conversation
Leo: We still don't have a title for the project.
Mia: Give me five minutes, I'll come up with something.
Leo: You said that an hour ago.
Mia: And I'm still coming up with it!
Easy Way to Remember It
Picture an idea literally floating up out of your head, and you reaching out to grab it as it goes past. That's the whole image: something comes up, and you end up with it.
Similar Expressions
- think up something: very close in meaning, but limited to mentally inventing things like ideas, plans or excuses. She thought up a clever riddle.
- figure out something: working out an answer to something confusing, rather than inventing something new. See figure out.