Matches

How to spell matches

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce matches

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does matches mean?

1. nounSporting contests or games between opposing players or teams.
2. nounSmall sticks tipped with a substance that ignites when struck.
3. verbCorresponds to or fits with something else; pairs items that go together.

Matches in a sentence

• noun

  The team played three matches in a single weekend.

• noun

  The box of matches in the drawer had gone damp.

• verb

  That scarf matches the colour of her coat perfectly.

• noun

  Rain delayed several of the tennis matches on Saturday.

• noun

  He kept a packet of matches beside the camping stove.

• verb

  The software matches each invoice to the correct payment.

Where does matches come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word descends from Old English gemæcca, meaning a mate, companion, or one's equal, and it carried the idea of two things that belong together or fit one another. From the sense of an equal partner came the meaning of a contest between well-matched opponents, and from the idea of things that correspond came the verb sense of pairing or fitting. The quite separate fire-lighting noun arrived later, in the 1300s, from Old French meche (a wick or lamp-wick), itself from Latin myxa via Greek, and only came to mean the small chemically tipped stick around the early nineteenth century. Because English merged these two different ancestries into one spelling, the word covers companions, contests, correspondences, and fire-sticks alike. The plural and verb form simply add -es, which is automatic after the -ch sound, so the spelling itself rarely traps an adult.

How the word is built

• match (from Old English mæcca: companion, equal)
• -es (plural/third-person inflection)