Standard Lemma guide

matchbox

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Pacific Northwest Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: M AE1 CH B AA2 K S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A small box, usually a small cardboard box, in which matches are kept.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Any small, die-cast toy car, usually a collectible.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a box for holding matches

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: box

History

Etymology

From match + box.

By genericization from the die-cast toy car brand Matchbox owned by Mattel, so-called due to the size of the toys to fix in matchboxes.

Across languages

Translations

49 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: vuurhoutjiedosie — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Afrikaans: vuurhoutjieboksie — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Armenian: լուցկու տուփ (lucʻku tupʻ) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Bulgarian: кутия кибрит (kutija kibrit) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Chinese Mandarin: 火柴盒 (huǒcháihé) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Danish: tændstikæske — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Dutch: luciferdoosje — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Dutch: luciferdoos — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Esperanto: alumetskatolo — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Esperanto: alumetujo — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Estonian: tikutoos — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Faroese: svávuldós — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Finnish: tulitikkurasia — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Finnish: tulitikkuaski — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • French: boîte d'allumettes — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • German: Streichholzschachtel — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Greek: σπιρτόκουτο (spirtókouto) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Gujarati: દીવાસળીની પેટી (dīvāsaḷīnī peṭī) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Hungarian: gyufásdoboz — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Hungarian: gyufásskatulya — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Hungarian: gyufaskatulya — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Ingrian: pickapacka — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Irish: bosca cipíní — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Italian: scatola di fiammiferi — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Japanese: マッチ箱 (matchi-bako) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Malay: kotak mancis — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Malayalam: തീപ്പെട്ടി (tīppeṭṭi) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Malayalam: തീപ്പെട്ടിക്കൂട് (tīppeṭṭikkūṭŭ) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Manx: kishtey foaddan — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Māori: pāki māti — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Norwegian Bokmål: fyrstikkeske — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: fyrstikkeske — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Persian: قوطی کبریت (quti kebrit) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Polish: pudełko od zapałek — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Portuguese: caixa de fósforo/fósforos — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Punjabi: ਡੱਬੀ (ḍabbī) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Russian: спи́чечный коробо́к (spíčečnyj korobók) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Russian: спи́чечная коро́бка (spíčečnaja koróbka) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Spanish: fosforera — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Spanish: cerillero — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Spanish: caja de fósforos — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Spanish: caja de cerillas — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Swedish: tändsticksask — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Tamil: தீப்பெட்டி (tīppeṭṭi) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Thai: กล่องไม้ขีด — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Tibetan: ཙག་སྒྲ་སྒམ་ཆུང (tsag sgra sgam chung) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Tibetan: མུ་ཟི་སྒམ་ཆུང (mu zi sgam chung) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Turkish: kibrit kutusu — small cardboard box in which matches are kept
  • Ottoman Turkish: كبریت قوطیسی (kibrit kutusu) — small cardboard box in which matches are kept