Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having no match or equal; unsurpassed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having no match or equal; peerless; unrivaled: as, matchless impudence; matchless charms.
  • Not matched; not paired; hence, unshared; having no partner.
  • Synonyms Unparalleled, incomparable, inimitable.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having no equal; unequaled.
  • adjective obsolete Unlike each other; unequal; unsuited.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having no match; without equal.
  • adjective Having no mate.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective eminent beyond or above comparison

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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").

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Examples

  • The same applies to the actual message of the work, the description of copulation, the nuptials of flowers in matchless bridal beds.

    Notes 2001

  • Above hung heavy clouds, alas! too suggestive of the hopes that perished forever at Appomattox, but ever and anon the struggling sun broke through, lingering awhile as if to recall the matchless glory which, even in the hour of disaster and defeat, gilded and made immortal the untarnished swords, the stacked arms, then and there surrendered.

    Memories A Record of Personal Experience and Adventure During Four Years of War Fannie A. Beers

  • Above hung heavy clouds, alas! too suggestive of the hopes that perished forever at Appomattox, but ever and anon the struggling sun broke through, lingering awhile as if to recall the matchless glory which, even in the hour of disaster and defeat, gilded and made immortal the untarnished swords, the stacked arms, then and there surrendered.

    Memories Beers, Fannie A. 1888

  • OF ROXBURGH became the purchaser of these "matchless" volumes.

    Bibliomania; or Book-Madness A Bibliographical Romance Thomas Frognall Dibdin 1811

  • So they finished their supper in great joy and contentment, and presently retired to rest between clean sheets, safe in Toad's ancestral home, won back by matchless valour, consummate strategy, and a proper handling of sticks.

    Matchless Valour 2009

  • A world that I thought I was trying to uncover, but a world that only John could reveal through his matchless storytelling ability.

    Colin Darke: Book Review: 313: Life in the Motor City Colin Darke 2011

  • Lincoln was enormously skilled at adjusting his style to his audience, balancing folksy charm with religion and that matchless logical precision of his as required. authors paraphrase Says:

    Matthew Yglesias » Harry Reid’s WTF Moment 2010

  • At home in Canberra it would have to be the Australian magpiefor its matchless song.

    A Conversation with Nicholas Drayson about his novel, A Guide to the Birds of East Africa 2010

  • Visiting Yad Vashem, the museum of the Holocaust, Hare was struck by the thought that the paintings and sculptures on view seemed superfluous when one was confronted by the matchless horror of fact.

    Culture Maxine 2009

  • So they finished their supper in great joy and contentment, and presently retired to rest between clean sheets, safe in Toad's ancestral home, won back by matchless valour, consummate strategy, and a proper handling of sticks.

    Archive 2009-06-01 2009

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