Other forms: matches, matching, matched
Two things match when they go together — same colour, same size, same kind. Socks coming out of the wash, a tie held up against a shirt, the lid that fits the pot.
The other match is the game: one organised contest between two sides. A football match, a boxing match, a chess match. A third match is a completely separate word that landed on the same spelling — the little stick you strike to make a flame, sold in a box of matches. The verb also means to be as good as: nobody can match her at cards. And a person can be your match, meaning your equal, or a good match, meaning well suited to you. Careful with the pairs: colours match each other, but you match one thing WITH or TO another.
1verbmatchTo be the same as something else, or to look good beside it.~18%
“The curtains match the cushions almost exactly.”
2verbputTo put or find things together that go with each other.~2%
“The children matched each animal to its footprint.”
3noungameAn organised game or contest between two players or teams.~74%
“The match was called off twenty minutes before kick-off.”
4nounshortA short stick with a tip that bursts into flame when struck.~2%
“He struck a match and the whole room jumped.”
5nounequalA person or thing equal to another, or well suited to them.~2%
“In stubbornness the two of them were a perfect match.”
6verbgoodTo be as good as someone or something else.~2%
“No other supermarket can match that price.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 15 sentences found in the wild and placed 15 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
The oldest match was a person. Old English ġemæċċa meant a companion, a mate, a wife — the one suited to you — and the Proto-West Germanic *gamakkjō behind it meant plainly partner, equal. The root, Proto-Indo-European *mag-, meant to knead, to work: the making of a fit. From that single idea come both matching socks and a Saturday football match, two things set against each other as equals.
Middle English
macche
English, today
match
Built from
From Middle English macche. 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”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA