diff --git a/spacy/lexeme.pyx b/spacy/lexeme.pyx
index 8c1b5f34c..d136540f9 100644
--- a/spacy/lexeme.pyx
+++ b/spacy/lexeme.pyx
@@ -112,6 +112,14 @@ cdef class Lexeme:
             `Span`, `Token` and `Lexeme` objects.
         RETURNS (float): A scalar similarity score. Higher is more similar.
         """
+        # Return 1.0 similarity for matches
+        if hasattr(other, 'orth'):
+            if self.c.orth == other.orth:
+                return 1.0
+        elif hasattr(other, '__len__') and len(other) == 1 \
+        and hasattr(other[0], 'orth'):
+            if self.c.orth == other[0].orth:
+                return 1.0
         if self.vector_norm == 0 or other.vector_norm == 0:
             return 0.0
         return (numpy.dot(self.vector, other.vector) /
diff --git a/spacy/tests/doc/test_doc_api.py b/spacy/tests/doc/test_doc_api.py
index e4d57cbb0..a5f50f2bc 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/doc/test_doc_api.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/doc/test_doc_api.py
@@ -217,6 +217,16 @@ def test_doc_api_has_vector():
     doc = Doc(vocab, words=['kitten'])
     assert doc.has_vector
 
+
+def test_doc_api_similarity_match():
+    doc = Doc(Vocab(), words=['a'])
+    assert doc.similarity(doc[0]) == 1.0
+    assert doc.similarity(doc.vocab['a']) == 1.0
+    doc2 = Doc(doc.vocab, words=['a', 'b', 'c'])
+    assert doc.similarity(doc2[:1]) == 1.0
+    assert doc.similarity(doc2) == 0.0
+
+
 def test_lowest_common_ancestor(en_tokenizer):
     tokens = en_tokenizer('the lazy dog slept')
     doc = get_doc(tokens.vocab, [t.text for t in tokens], heads=[2, 1, 1, 0])
@@ -225,6 +235,7 @@ def test_lowest_common_ancestor(en_tokenizer):
     assert(lca[0, 1] == 2)
     assert(lca[1, 2] == 2)
 
+
 def test_parse_tree(en_tokenizer):
     """Tests doc.print_tree() method."""
     text = 'I like New York in Autumn.'
diff --git a/spacy/tests/doc/test_span.py b/spacy/tests/doc/test_span.py
index b8638ba4b..8cd4347c2 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/doc/test_span.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/doc/test_span.py
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 from ..util import get_doc
 from ...attrs import ORTH, LENGTH
+from ...tokens import Doc
+from ...vocab import Vocab
 
 import pytest
 
@@ -66,6 +68,15 @@ def test_spans_lca_matrix(en_tokenizer):
     assert(lca[1, 1] == 1)
 
 
+def test_span_similarity_match():
+    doc = Doc(Vocab(), words=['a', 'b', 'a', 'b'])
+    span1 = doc[:2]
+    span2 = doc[2:]
+    assert span1.similarity(span2) == 1.0
+    assert span1.similarity(doc) == 0.0
+    assert span1[:1].similarity(doc.vocab['a']) == 1.0
+
+
 def test_spans_default_sentiment(en_tokenizer):
     """Test span.sentiment property's default averaging behaviour"""
     text = "good stuff bad stuff"
diff --git a/spacy/tokens/doc.pyx b/spacy/tokens/doc.pyx
index df6a17521..12932238f 100644
--- a/spacy/tokens/doc.pyx
+++ b/spacy/tokens/doc.pyx
@@ -295,6 +295,17 @@ cdef class Doc:
         """
         if 'similarity' in self.user_hooks:
             return self.user_hooks['similarity'](self, other)
+        if isinstance(other, (Lexeme, Token)) and self.length == 1:
+            if self.c[0].lex.orth == other.orth:
+                return 1.0
+        elif isinstance(other, (Span, Doc)):
+            if len(self) == len(other):
+                for i in range(self.length):
+                    if self[i].orth != other[i].orth:
+                        break
+                else:
+                    return 1.0
+ 
         if self.vector_norm == 0 or other.vector_norm == 0:
             return 0.0
         return numpy.dot(self.vector, other.vector) / (self.vector_norm * other.vector_norm)
diff --git a/spacy/tokens/span.pyx b/spacy/tokens/span.pyx
index 7c8e0a9ed..10d9660e7 100644
--- a/spacy/tokens/span.pyx
+++ b/spacy/tokens/span.pyx
@@ -184,6 +184,15 @@ cdef class Span:
         """
         if 'similarity' in self.doc.user_span_hooks:
             self.doc.user_span_hooks['similarity'](self, other)
+        if len(self) == 1 and hasattr(other, 'orth'):
+            if self[0].orth == other.orth:
+                return 1.0
+        elif hasattr(other, '__len__') and len(self) == len(other):
+            for i in range(len(self)):
+                if self[i].orth != getattr(other[i], 'orth', None):
+                    break
+            else:
+                return 1.0
         if self.vector_norm == 0.0 or other.vector_norm == 0.0:
             return 0.0
         return numpy.dot(self.vector, other.vector) / (self.vector_norm * other.vector_norm)
diff --git a/spacy/tokens/token.pyx b/spacy/tokens/token.pyx
index 11a165ab8..74487b515 100644
--- a/spacy/tokens/token.pyx
+++ b/spacy/tokens/token.pyx
@@ -149,6 +149,12 @@ cdef class Token:
         """
         if 'similarity' in self.doc.user_token_hooks:
             return self.doc.user_token_hooks['similarity'](self)
+        if hasattr(other, '__len__') and len(other) == 1:
+            if self.c.lex.orth == getattr(other[0], 'orth', None):
+                return 1.0
+        elif hasattr(other, 'orth'):
+            if self.c.lex.orth == other.orth:
+                return 1.0
         if self.vector_norm == 0 or other.vector_norm == 0:
             return 0.0
         return (numpy.dot(self.vector, other.vector) /