diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index ece051e..d95b07c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 v0.6 (unreleased):
 
-- ...
+- Updated Wikicode.matches() to recognize underscores as being equivalent
+  to spaces. (#216)
 
 v0.5.4 (released May 15, 2019):
 
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 948c9c1..c46e8f1 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@ v0.6
 Unreleased
 (`changes <https://github.com/earwig/mwparserfromhell/compare/v0.5.4...develop>`__):
 
-- ...
+- Updated Wikicode.matches() to recognize underscores as being equivalent
+  to spaces. (`#216 <https://github.com/earwig/mwparserfromhell/issues/216>`_)
 
 v0.5.4
 ------
diff --git a/mwparserfromhell/wikicode.py b/mwparserfromhell/wikicode.py
index 0cc7276..840d8ed 100644
--- a/mwparserfromhell/wikicode.py
+++ b/mwparserfromhell/wikicode.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8  -*-
 #
-# Copyright (C) 2012-2017 Ben Kurtovic <ben.kurtovic@gmail.com>
+# Copyright (C) 2012-2019 Ben Kurtovic <ben.kurtovic@gmail.com>
 #
 # Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
 # of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
@@ -501,16 +501,16 @@ class Wikicode(StringMixIn):
         letter's case is normalized. Typical usage is
         ``if template.name.matches("stub"): ...``.
         """
-        cmp = lambda a, b: (a[0].upper() + a[1:] == b[0].upper() + b[1:]
-                            if a and b else a == b)
-        this = self.strip_code().strip()
+        normalize = lambda s: (s[0].upper() + s[1:]).replace("_", " ") if s else s
+        this = normalize(self.strip_code().strip())
+
         if isinstance(other, (str, bytes, Wikicode, Node)):
             that = parse_anything(other).strip_code().strip()
-            return cmp(this, that)
+            return this == normalize(that)
 
         for obj in other:
             that = parse_anything(obj).strip_code().strip()
-            if cmp(this, that):
+            if this == normalize(that):
                 return True
         return False
 
diff --git a/tests/test_wikicode.py b/tests/test_wikicode.py
index fceb272..307ee9a 100644
--- a/tests/test_wikicode.py
+++ b/tests/test_wikicode.py
@@ -312,7 +312,9 @@ class TestWikicode(TreeEqualityTestCase):
         """test Wikicode.matches()"""
         code1 = parse("Cleanup")
         code2 = parse("\nstub<!-- TODO: make more specific -->")
-        code3 = parse("")
+        code3 = parse("Hello world!")
+        code4 = parse("World,_hello?")
+        code5 = parse("")
         self.assertTrue(code1.matches("Cleanup"))
         self.assertTrue(code1.matches("cleanup"))
         self.assertTrue(code1.matches("  cleanup\n"))
@@ -327,9 +329,15 @@ class TestWikicode(TreeEqualityTestCase):
         self.assertFalse(code2.matches(["StuB", "sTUb", "foobar"]))
         self.assertTrue(code2.matches(("StuB", "sTUb", "foo", "bar", "Stub")))
         self.assertTrue(code2.matches(["StuB", "sTUb", "foo", "bar", "Stub"]))
-        self.assertTrue(code3.matches(""))
-        self.assertTrue(code3.matches("<!-- nothing -->"))
-        self.assertTrue(code3.matches(("a", "b", "")))
+        self.assertTrue(code3.matches("hello world!"))
+        self.assertTrue(code3.matches("hello_world!"))
+        self.assertFalse(code3.matches("hello__world!"))
+        self.assertTrue(code4.matches("World,_hello?"))
+        self.assertTrue(code4.matches("World, hello?"))
+        self.assertFalse(code4.matches("World,  hello?"))
+        self.assertTrue(code5.matches(""))
+        self.assertTrue(code5.matches("<!-- nothing -->"))
+        self.assertTrue(code5.matches(("a", "b", "")))
 
     def test_filter_family(self):
         """test the Wikicode.i?filter() family of functions"""