traffic jam

noun

: a situation in which a long line of vehicles on a road have stopped moving or are moving very slowly
stuck in a traffic jam

Examples of traffic jam in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Long story short, in 1982, Key West staged a faux-protest against the U.S. government for causing a debilitating traffic jam along the only road out of the Keys. Katherine Alex Beaven, Travel + Leisure, 11 Apr. 2024 There was a shooting, stampedes through sensitive dune areas, and a massive traffic jam that shut down the island’s two-lane causeway, preventing access for emergency vehicles. Patrik Jonsson, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 Mar. 2024 Executives, such as Bob Iger, waited an hour to walk the red carpet due to the traffic jam. Jaden Thompson, Variety, 10 Mar. 2024 The teams entered the weekend locked in a three-team traffic jam with Oregon State for second in the conference. Thuc Nhi Nguyen, Los Angeles Times, 24 Feb. 2024 In Thursday’s shooting, three Palestinians used automatic weapons to fire from a car toward a traffic jam in front of the A Za’im checkpoint, which leads to Jerusalem, the Israeli police said. Thomas Fuller, New York Times, 22 Feb. 2024 This was illustrated perhaps most clearly in 2019, when a human traffic jam on the mountain resulted in 11 deaths. Colleen Grablick, Washington Post, 22 Feb. 2024 Increasingly, spacecraft need a way to navigate this cosmic traffic jam and evade space debris. Expert Panel®, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023 Brent Hess was headed to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport to drop his daughter Courtney off for her 12:30 p.m. flight to Denver, but the duo ended up getting stuck in a six-hour traffic jam on the Hardy Tollway, NBC affiliate KPRC-TV reported. Brian Brant, Peoplemag, 16 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'traffic jam.' 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 traffic jam

Cite this Entry

“Traffic jam.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/traffic%20jam. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.

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