match

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Any contest or trial of strength or skill, or to determine superiority.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

mach

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈmætʃ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

Any contest or trial of strength or skill, or to determine superiority.
Someone with a measure of an attribute equaling or exceeding the object of comparison.
A pair of items or entities with mutually suitable characteristics.
sports
A competitive sporting event such as a boxing meet (commonly called a "bout"), a baseball game, or a cricket match.
A candidate for matrimony; one to be gained in marriage.
Equality of conditions in contest or competition.

verb

intransitive
To agree; to be equal; to correspond.
Be equal or harmonize
transitive
To equal or exceed in achievement.
To fit together, or make suitable for fitting together; specifically, to furnish with a tongue and groove at the edges.
transitive
To make a successful match or pairing.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: A2 · Elementary
Frequency: Very Common
Typical Use: Varies by meaning

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Any contest or trial of strength or skill, or to determine superiority.

Used this way, match is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use match

“The company matched the employees' contributions.”verb
“If you drop a match in there the whole place will explode.”noun
“Let them match their best athletes against ours.”verb

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

football matchwrestling matchgood matchperfect match

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

matchedadjectiveInflected form
Going well together.
matchernounInflected form
Someone who arranges (or tries to arrange) marriages for others.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

matching fundsnounCompound term
Funds that will be supplied in an amount matching the funds available from other sources.
match gamenounCompound term
An international championship match.
match planenounCompound term
A plane having cutters designed to make the tongues and grooves on the edges of matchboards.
match playnounCompound term
Golf scoring by holes won.
match pointnounCompound term
The final point needed to win a match (especially in tennis).
match-upnounCompound term
The pairing of people or things as for comparison or competition.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

matchboxnounRelated term
A box for holding matches.
matchbooknounRelated term
A small folder of paper safety matches.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

noun

Sense: any contest or trial of strength or skill

paircatchpit

verb

Sense: to agree

equaltally

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.