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Is it que, queue, or q?
One of our persistent—and more puzzling—lookups is for the word que, which is entered in our dictionary (capitalized) as an abbreviation for Quebec. Qué is also a Spanish word that means “what.” That is not, however, the word that many people are looking for when they look up que in our dictionary. Que is homophonous with a number of other words, most of which have wildly different spellings and meanings. One of the words that people are looking for when they look up que is queue, a word that means “line” (as in, “We waited in the ticket queue.”) Sometimes people are looking for the homonym cue, or “a signal to start or do something” (“The lights just went out—that’s my cue to start the movie.”). Very occasionally, people look up que for coup, a word that refers to a violent and sudden overthrow or takeover of a government (“reports on the latest coup attempt”). And if you’re looking for the phonetic spelling of the letter q, try again: that’s cue.
Examples of queue in a Sentence
James Oseland, Saveur, October 2008
Around the time the Soviet Union ceased to exist, I was waiting in the entry queue at Fiumicino Airport in Rome when I noticed a party of several dozen young Russian girls being fast-tracked past a freshly opened control window.
—Peter Robb, New York Times Book Review, 25 May 2008
But many more people deserve the Nobel than get it. Krauss should've gotten it years ago. Though by now so many other discoveries have been made that he's farther down in an ever increasing queue.
—Carl Djerassi, Cantor's Dilemma, 1989
We were forced to stand in a queue.
Three jobs remain in the printer queue.
Verb
The World's Food Fair, Boston. October 1896. Admission: 25 cents. Huge crowds throng the Mechanics Hall convention center. Women queue up for free samples from 200 different vendors: cereals, gelatins, extracts, candy, and custards.
—Christopher Kimball, Cook's Illustrated, January & February 2008
Nothing hacks off a national lawmaker more than a person who will not wait in line, unless that line is in front of an elevator at the U.S. Capitol, where Senators and Representatives use private elevators, lest they have to queue with their constituents.
—Steve Rushin, Time, 10 Sept. 2007
The crowd was queuing at the snack bar.
Charlotte Observer, 23 Apr. 2024
Cosmic Rewind does not currently offer a traditional standby line, so guests have to use the virtual queue or purchase an Individual Lightning Lane in order to ride.
—Elizabeth Rhodes, Travel + Leisure, 22 Apr. 2024
Only Verified Fans who got the access code can join the on-sale queue.
—Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 10 Apr. 2024
See more shows that are similar to SATC ahead and start adding them to your queue now.
—Kelsie Gibson, Peoplemag, 2 Apr. 2024
Traditionally, concert-goers endured long lines for entry, but this year, Delta rewarded attendees who were SkyMilesⓇ Members with expedited access, ensuring Members could bypass the queues and swiftly gain priority.
—Walaa Elsiddig, Billboard, 28 Mar. 2024
Advertisement Both southbound and northbound traffic queue up at the road closures before 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
—Grace Toohey, Los Angeles Times, 3 Apr. 2024
Through a partnership with Southwest Airlines, Clark glides past airport queues and gets a special escort through the TSA line.
—Sydney Page, Washington Post, 3 Apr. 2024
Eliminating Airport Queues With the rise of AI, forward-thinking industry players already challenge software development experts to find new ways to solve one of their biggest challenges: eliminating airport queues.
—Stoyan Mitov, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2024
Demetrius Simms, Robb Report, 26 Jan. 2024
Hundreds of gift cards hang on unattended kiosks near the customer-service counter, where people queue to return broken toasters or exchange pajamas.
—Craig Silverman, ProPublica, 17 Jan. 2024
The weather in Iowa was already not great, but people queued outside for six hours, then waited inside for three more for Trump to take the stage.
—Antonia Hitchens, The New Yorker, 15 Jan. 2024
Some people go there every week and just have the same cut of meat, and then there are people who queue for two hours and have big meals with empanadas and morcilla and all the different cuts.
—Megan Spurrell, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Mar. 2024
The pass essentially allows participants to feed into the vehicle inspection lanes on the Mexican side from a closer midpoint rather than having to queue up at the very end as other traffic must.
—Alexandra Mendoza, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 Mar. 2024
The images from Ukraine this year look all too much like those of last year: homes reduced to shells, people queuing up for bread, soldiers helping their own and hurting the other side.
—Bishop Sand, Washington Post, 6 Dec. 2023
Locals and visitors have been happily queuing up for those glorious paper bags of sweet treats ever since.
—Lanee Lee, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2024
In the early days of the war hundreds of people, mostly men, queued at the military enlistment offices, demanding weapons and an opportunity to join the fighting.
—Yulia Drozd, ABC News, 20 Dec. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'queue.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near queue
Cite this Entry
“Queue.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/queue. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
queue
1 of 2 nounqueue
2 of 2 verbNoun
from French queue, literally, "tail," from Latin coda, cauda "tail" — related to coda, coward, cue entry 3 see Word History at coward
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