Still pondering this, seems it is not possible w/o macro or eval. Using eval as follows: (eval `(match ',(car z) (,@(cdr words) #t) (_ #f))) gets me what I need, but the overhead (and ugliness) of using eval is killing me. In this example, obviously the result of (car z) is what I'm attempting to match, and the result of (cdr words) is the actual arbitrary match construct that results in #t if a match is found (I use the whole thing inside a filter, hence only #t/f is needed). I am coming up blank trying to macro this - so that I could just say (mymatch (car z) (cdr words)) Any pointers will be *most* appreciated! Thx Rob