meciul

Meciul, literally “the match” in Romanian, is the definite form of the noun meci. It refers to a sports contest or any competitive encounter between two sides, and is used for a single game within a competition, such as a football match (meci de fotbal) or a tennis match (meci de tenis). The term is widely found in sports journalism and everyday speech.

The noun meci is borrowed from the French word match, likely entering Romanian through early 20th-century contact with Western sports terminology. Romanian morphology then applies the standard definite article suffix -ul to form meciul. The plural forms are meciuri (indefinite) and meciurile (definite).

In usage, meciul appears in a broad range of expressions, including qualifiers like meci greu (a tough match), meci ușor (an easy match), and meciul de azi (today’s match). Common phrases include meciul decisiv (the decisive match), meciul din tur (the first leg), and meciul din retur (the return leg) in two-legged competitions. The term can also be employed metaphorically to describe a non-sporting contest or confrontation, for example between rival groups or individuals.

Overall, meciul is a standard, neutral term in Romanian for identifying a specific competitive game, employed across media, commentary, and colloquial speech to denote a single, defined match within a wider competition.