matches

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of match.

   She struck one of the matches and lit the lantern.

   Both teams won their opening matches of the season.

   Note

   One plural serves every countable kind of match: a box of fire-starting sticks, a season of games, a run of contests, a family's marriages, or the rivals who prove a person's equals. The abstract sense of suitability is the exception. It names a quality rather than a thing you can count, so it stays singular and rarely appears in this form.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of match.

   The paint color matches the curtains perfectly.

   His account of the night matches what the other witnesses reported.

   Note

   The -es ending follows the ch sound, just as in catches and watches. It works with or without an object: a tie simply matches, or it matches the shirt. In writing it looks identical to the plural noun, so the sentence decides which one is meant. The old sense of marrying people off survives only in older texts.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2