matching

Formsbetter matching, best matching

Pluralmatchings (some meanings)

1. 1
   adjective

   Being the same as another item or sharing the same design.

   The bridesmaids carried matching bouquets of white roses.

   He painted the fence and the shed in matching shades of green.

   Similaridentical, coordinating, twin, corresponding

   Oppositemismatched, contrasting, clashing, odd

   Note

   Its comparison runs through better and best rather than more and most: a better matching pair of curtains, the best matching tile. Matching pair is the classic frame, and it can be denied as easily as asserted. John Crosse, writing in Rail in 2020, says of two differently liveried train cars that they "were certainly not a matching pair." The match here is sameness of look.

2. 2
   adjective

   Forming part of a pair with something else; complementary.

   Every bolt comes with a matching nut sized to fit it.

   The company provides matching funds equal to each employee's contribution.

   Similarcomplementary, corresponding, accompanying

   Note

   Here the two things belong together without looking alike: a nut answers its bolt, a night answers its day. James Moodie's 1980 personal advertisement in Gay Community News wishes a reader "sunlit days and matching moonlit nights," opposites that complete each other. That is the test against the "same design" meaning. Matching armchairs are identical, while a matching nut is the other half.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The process of pairing things together or putting them with their correct partners.

   The shelter's matching of pets to new owners has been very successful.

   Good matching of skills to tasks keeps the team productive.

   Similarpairing

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle of match.

   The software is matching applicants with suitable jobs.

   They were matching wits across the chessboard.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of the verb match, so the construction decides which one is meant. With an object it means pairing or equaling: matching applicants with jobs, matching a rival's record. Without one it means agreeing: the figures are matching. Carpenters use it for fitting boards with tongue and groove. When it describes things that look alike, it has become the adjective.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   In graph theory, a set of edges in a graph that share no common vertex, pairing vertices to one another one to one.

   Every matching in a bipartite graph pairs vertices without sharing endpoints.

   The algorithm searches for the largest matching in the network.

   Note

   Mathematics turns the process into an object you can count: a matching, two matchings, the largest matching in a network. Its edges are called independent because no two of them meet. Each vertex they touch is matched to exactly one partner. Unlike the general process noun, it takes an article or a plural, like any count noun.

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