# match

> English word · Noun · IPA /mæt͡ʃ/ · frequency rank #774

## Definitions
1. A competitive sporting event such as a boxing meet (commonly called a "bout"), a baseball game, or a cricket match.
2. Any contest or trial of strength or skill, or to determine superiority.
3. Someone with a measure of an attribute equaling or exceeding the object of comparison.
4. A marriage.
5. A candidate for matrimony; one to be gained in marriage.
6. Suitability.
7. Equivalence; a state of correspondence.
8. Equality of conditions in contest or competition.
9. A pair of items or entities with mutually suitable characteristics.
10. An agreement or compact.
11. 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.

## Etymology
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”).

## Easily confused with
- **much** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-much)
- **mate** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-mate)
- **matt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-matt)
- **math** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-math)
- **myth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-myth)
- **meth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-meth)
- **mats** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-mats)
- **moth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-moth)
- **mech** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-mech)
- **mates** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-mates)
- **mitch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-mitch)
- **maths** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-maths)
- **matte** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-matte)
- **mater** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-mater)
- **Mateo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-mateo)
- **merch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-merch)
- **Matty** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-matty)
- **munch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-munch)
- **Matic** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-matic)
- **mated** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/match-vs-mated)

## Common misspellings (8)
`amtch`, `macth`, `matcch`, `matchh`, `mathc`, `mattch`, `mmatch`, `mtach`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/match