bottleneck
/bˈɑtəlnˌɛk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.97 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
In traffic, any narrowing of the road, especially resulting in a delay.
noun
The part of a process that is too slow or cumbersome due to the lessening of available throughput.
Example Sentences
- ""Permissive" working allows more than one train to be in a block section at one time but trains must be run at low speed in order to stop on sight behind the train in front. Such working is often authorised to allow freight trains to "bunch" together to await a path through a bottleneck instead of being strung out over several block sections, as would be necessary if absolute working were in force."
- "At one time, Reading was regarded as a notorious bottleneck in the rail network, almost incapable of managing the number of services that needed to pass through the station each day. [...] A road widening scheme at Cow Lane has also allowed two-way traffic to run beneath the railway for the first time, helping to remove a notorious road traffic bottleneck in the town."
- "It is easy to create entries; processing the paperwork is the bottleneck."
- "The bottleneck in this computer program is the inefficient sorting process; we should replace it with a faster one."
- "The merge bottlenecked the traffic every morning."
- "The traffic bottlenecked at the merge every morning."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeHw-der. Ancient Greekbor.? Latin buttis Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Proto-Italic *-kelos Latin -culus Late Latin butticula Old French boteillebor. Middle English botel English bottle Proto-Germanic *hnakkô Proto-West Germanic *hnakkō Old English hnecca Middle English nekke English neck English bottleneck From bottle + neck.