Came is the past tense of the verb “to come,” which means to move toward someone or something, or to arrive at a place. When you say “I came home from school,” you're describing movement that already happened. When your friend says “She came to my birthday party,” they mean she arrived and was there.

The word works in many situations. You might say the mail came at noon, meaning it arrived then. If someone asks how you came to love reading, they're asking about the process that led to your interest. When spring came, the flowers started blooming.

Came often appears in expressions that show origins or causes. If an idea came to you during math class, it means the idea entered your mind then. When people say good things came from hard work, they mean the hard work produced those results.

Because came is an irregular past tense (not “comed”), it's one of those words you learn by hearing and using it rather than by following a pattern. Once you know it, though, it becomes one of the most useful words for describing any kind of arrival, approach, or change that already happened.