match

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See also: Match

English

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /mæt͡ʃ/
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ætʃ

Etymology 1

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From Middle English macche, mecche, from Old English mæċċa, ġemæċċa (“companion, mate, wife, one suited to another”), from Proto-West Germanic *makkjō, *gamakkjō (“partner, equal”), from Proto-Germanic *makô, from Proto-Indo-European *mag- (“to knead, work”). Compare Danish mage (“mate”), Icelandic maki (“spouse”).

Noun

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match (plural matches)

  2. (sports) A competitive sporting event such as a boxing meet (commonly called a "bout"), a baseball game, or a cricket match.
    My local team are playing in a match against their arch-rivals today.
    • 1886, Lim Hiong Seng, Handbook of the Swatow Vernacular, Singapore: Koh Yew Hean Press:
      Can you play billiards? / Yes, do you wish to have a match with me? / Let us simply play (a game) for pleasure. We needn't have a match, as I don't like to gamble.
  3. Any contest or trial of strength or skill, or to determine superiority.
    • 1605, Michaell Draiton [i.e., Michael Drayton], “The Second Booke of the Barrons Warres”, in Poems: […], London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] Ling, →OCLC, stanza 22, page 31:
      Ferrer his Taberd vvith rich Verry ſpred, / VVell knovvne in many a vvarlike match before; […]
    • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the page)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
      A solemn match was made; he lost the prize.
  4. Someone with a measure of an attribute equaling or exceeding the object of comparison.
    He knew he had met his match.
    • 1716 February 10 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 12. Monday, January 30. [1716.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC:
      Government […] makes an innocent man, though of the lowest rank, a match for the mightiest of his fellow subjects.
    • 1991, Boys' Life‎[1], volume 81, number 4:
      Dean Ippolito looks like an ordinary kid. But at chess, he is a knight of battle. Most adults are no match for him.
  5. A marriage.
  6. A candidate for matrimony; one to be gained in marriage.
  7. Suitability.
  8. Equivalence; a state of correspondence.
    • 2019 October 23, Pip Dunn, “The next king of Scotland”, in Rail, page 51:
      The seat to window match is excellent and there are half-size partition screens between bays.
  9. Equality of conditions in contest or competition.
  10. A pair of items or entities with mutually suitable characteristics.
    The carpet and curtains are a match.
    a match made in heaven
  11. An agreement or compact.
    • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:
      Thy hand upon that match.
    • 1648 August 16 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Robert Boyle, Some Motives and Incentives to the Love of God. […] [Seraphick Love], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], published 1659, →OCLC, page 6:
      [I]t hath been obſerv'd, that Love doth ſeldome ſuffer it ſelf to be confin'd by other matches, then thoſe of its ovvne making.
  12. (metalworking) A perforated board, block of plaster, hardened sand, etc., in which a pattern is partly embedded when a mould is made, for giving shape to the surfaces of separation between the parts of the mould.
Derived terms
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Descendants
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Translations
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See also
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English macchen (“to marry; be paired with”), from the noun (see above).

Verb

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match (third-person singular simple present matches, present participle matching, simple past and past participle matched)

  1. (intransitive) To agree; to be equal; to correspond.
    Their interests didn't match, so it took a long time to agree what to do together.
    These two copies are supposed to be identical, but they don't match.
    • 2021 June 30, Philip Haigh, “Regional trains squeezed as ECML congestion heads north”, in RAIL, number 934, page 52:
      I'll be interested to see how this service does. It will be basic with fares to match, so will be akin to a budget airline taking on a flag-carrier.
  2. (transitive) To agree with; to be equal to; to correspond to.
    His interests didn't match her interests.
    • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0091:
      There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
    • 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings:
      Soon after the arrival of Mrs. Campbell, dinner was announced by Abboye. He came into the drawing room resplendent in his gold-and-white turban. […] His cummerbund matched the turban in gold lines.
  3. (transitive) To equal or exceed in achievement.
    She matched him at every turn: anything he could do, she could do as well or better.
  4. (transitive) To make a successful match or pairing.
    They found out about his color-blindness when he couldn't match socks properly.
    • 2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:
      Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.
  5. (obsolete) To unite in marriage, to mate.
  6. To fit together, or make suitable for fitting together; specifically, to furnish with a tongue and groove at the edges.
    to match boards
  7. (transitive, programming) To be an example of a rule or regex.
    The behavior matched one or more rules and was rejected by an edit filter.
Antonyms
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Derived terms
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Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
Translations
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See also
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A match.

Etymology 3

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From Middle English macche, mecche (“wick (of a candle)”), from Old French mesche, meische, from Vulgar Latin micca (compare Catalan metxa, Spanish mecha, Italian miccia), which in turn is probably from Latin myxa (“nozzle, curved part of a lamp”), from Ancient Greek μύξα (múxa, “lamp wick”).

Noun

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match (plural matches)

  2. A device made of wood or paper, at the tip coated with chemicals that ignite with the friction of being dragged (struck) against a rough dry surface.
    Synonym: (obsolete) spunk
    He struck a match and lit his cigarette.
Derived terms
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Terms derived from match (fire-starter)
Descendants
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Translations
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See also
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Chinese

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Etymology

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From English [Term?]. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term. from match or matching or others?

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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match

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) matching; well-matched

Synonyms

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French

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Etymology

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From English match.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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match m (plural matches or matchs)

  1. (sports) match, game

Usage notes

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Sometimes translated as rencontre (sportive).

Derived terms

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Descendants

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Further reading

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Italian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English match.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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match m (invariable)

  1. match (sports event)
  2. horserace (involving only two horses)

Norwegian Bokmål

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Verb

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match

  1. imperative of matche

Spanish

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English match.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈmat͡ʃ/ [ˈmat͡ʃ]
  • Rhymes: -atʃ
  • Syllabification: match

Noun

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match m (plural matches)

  1. game, match (sporting event)
    • 2003, Éduard Efimovich Gufel'd, Efim Markovič Lazarev, El Campeonato Mundial de Ajedrez :
      El match quedó programado para 1978 en la ciudad de Baguio City, un centro turístico de montaña
  2. match (act of matching)
    Hice match con un pibón en Tinder
    I got a match with a hotty on Tinder.
    • 2018, Fernando del Solar, ¡Arriba los corazones! :
      Se creía la última Coca Cola del desierto, todos eran menos y fue cuando yo ya no empecé a hacer match con él —señala tajante Maru, quien vivió en carne propia los cambios de Fernando a nivel familiar y laboral.

Usage notes

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According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Swedish

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English match.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /matːɕ/, [maʈːʂ], /matːɧ/

Noun

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match c

  1. match (competitive event)

Declension

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Declension of match
nominative genitive
singular indefinite match matchs
definite matchen matchens
plural indefinite matcher matchers
definite matcherna matchernas

Derived terms

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