match

Definition

To pair two things and judge whether they correspond. In retrieval it names the core operation, split between lexical matching on surface tokens and dense matching on embeddings. In results sections the verb takes a different sense: to match human performance means to reach the same level, not to align two items — read the object to tell which is meant.

Explainers using this term

• Paper Walkthrough: It Takes Two to Match — Co-Evolving Both Sides of Retrieval with RLIt Takes Two to Match: Co-Evolving Generative Retriever with Reinforcement Learning