Matchless

Origin

From match + -less, modelled after or partly continuing Middle English makeless ("having no peer or equal, matchless"), equivalent to make + -less. Compare Swedish makalös ("incomparable, matchless"), Danish mageløs ("matchless").

Full definition of matchless

Adjective

1. Having no match; without equal.
• 1819, Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, ch. 8:The Prince was to declare the victor in the first day's tourney, who should receive as prize a warhorse of exquisite beauty and matchless strength.
• 2002, Daniel Okrent, "Books: A Prince of a Pitcher" (Review of: Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy), Time, 30 Sept.:It was not his matchless talent that exalted Koufax beyond his greatest contemporaries so much as it was his knowledge that character was not connected to talent.
2. Having no mate.
• 2010, Sandra Brennan, "Movies: The Flying Matchmaker (1966)," nytimes.com, 1 June (retrieved 13 Sep 2010):In this comedy, a matchmaker has a matchless daughter. Try as he might, he cannot seem to find anyone for her.

Synonyms

• (without equal) incomparable, nonpareil, peerless, unequaled, unmatched, unparalleled, unsurpassed
• (having no mate) single, unattached

Derived terms

• matchlessly
• matchlessness