You will often hear language service providers talk about context matches. You may ask, how is that different from a 100% match?
We should first mention that most language service providers use translation memory technology to store human translations in a database to create consistency and savings on future projects where the same content is repeated. This is especially important for clients that update their documentation frequently.
A 100% match is a sentence in a document that is identical to a previously translated sentence that is stored in the database. A context match is a 100% match with the same exact preceding and subsequent sentences. This gives us a little more certainty of the pedigree of the 100% match.
The reasoning behind this confidence is that a 100% match in context is far better than a plain 100% match. I believe this is especially true for short segments.
Most translation memory management systems now differentiate between the two levels of 100% match.