Hey Guys,

This is just an idiom, which means there's no logic to it other than it's just how English is spoken! The idiom is "only matched by". The order is unimportant:

X is only matched by Y.

X is matched only by Y.

It simply means "the only thing that is as expensive/interesting/whatever is some other thing".

"Matched with" is used in other places: "Steve has been matched with Sandy at the school dance."

Hope that helps!

-t

Hey Heymant,

"Matched by" is for comparisons. "Matched with" is for things like dating ("I was matched with her for the closing ceremony".

And Sana, that's not quite right. Your sentence example doesn't make sense. You're right that you use it for people, but you have to be physically paired up. It can also me used when things are paired off because they are identical:

This earring matches (with) the earring we found at the crime scene.

At this point, we're not talking about idioms so much as vocabulary, so I think we should leave this thread here. For more information, just look up "match" in the dictionary! Or I can:

verb [ with obj. ]
1 correspond or cause to correspond in some essential respect; make or be harmonious: [ with obj. ] : we bought green and blue curtains to match the bedspread | she matched her steps to his | [ no obj. ] : the jacket and pants do not match.
"¢ team (someone or something) with someone or something else appropriate or harmonious: they matched suitably qualified applicants with institutions that had vacancies | she was trying to match the draperies to the couch.
2 be equal to (something) in quality or strength: his anger matched her own.
"¢ succeed in reaching or equaling (a standard or quality): he tried to match her nonchalance.
"¢ equalize (two coupled electrical impedances) so as to bring about the maximum transfer of power from one to the other.
3 place (a person or group) in contest or competition with another: the big names were matched against nobodies | (as adj., with submodifiermatched) : evenly matched teams.


-t