Rematch

How to spell rematch

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rematch

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rematch mean?

1. nounA second contest between opponents who have met before, often to settle an earlier result.
2. verbTo arrange or play a contest again between the same opponents.

Rematch in a sentence

• noun

  The two boxers signed for a rematch in the spring.

• verb

  The league agreed to rematch the abandoned fixture next month.

• noun

  Fans demanded a rematch after the disputed final.

• verb

  Organisers decided to rematch the two finalists after the tie.

Where does rematch come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a compound built inside English from the prefix re-, borrowed from Latin where it carried the sense of 'again' or 'back', joined to the noun 'match'. The 'match' here is the native English word, descended from Old English gemaecca, which originally meant 'a mate, an equal, or a companion'; from the idea of two well paired people it broadened to mean a contest between two evenly matched sides. By the time it gathered the re- prefix, 'match' had long meant a sporting fixture, so a rematch is simply a fixture played again. The word is relatively young, appearing in the language of organised sport during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The single thing to remember for spelling is that re- and match join cleanly with no doubled letter and no hyphen, so the t and the ch sit exactly as they do in 'match'.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• match (a contest or game)