as in jam
a crowded mass (as of cars) that impedes or blocks movement
a bottleneck inevitably forms at the start of a construction zone when the highway narrows from three to two lanes
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
as in linear
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
as in to dam
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of bottleneck
Bestreviews, Mercury News, 9 July 2025
Tory Burch, Brooke Shields, Leon Black, Michael Bloomberg, Wilbur Ross, and Howard Stern.
Noteworthy for being the point at which Eastbound traffic gets bottlenecked on a summer Friday where Route 27 crosses Mill Creek.
—Stephanie Krikorian, Curbed, 23 June 2025
Jason Phillips, USA Today, 28 Aug. 2025
Furniture prices spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, since stay-at-home orders triggered a surge of demand while delivery bottlenecks crimped supply.
—Max Zahn, ABC News, 26 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for bottleneck
Adjective
It’s also recommended to go with one that has solid-state storage instead of a hard drive, as a traditional hard drive will greatly bottleneck the performance of the rest of the components.
—Bestreviews, Mercury News, 9 July 2025
Tory Burch, Brooke Shields, Leon Black, Michael Bloomberg, Wilbur Ross, and Howard Stern.
Noteworthy for being the point at which Eastbound traffic gets bottlenecked on a summer Friday where Route 27 crosses Mill Creek.
—Stephanie Krikorian, Curbed, 23 June 2025
Verb
The platform frees up common bottlenecks and allows developers to develop their features and deploy them at will, without needing deep DevOps expertise.
—Jason Phillips, USA Today, 28 Aug. 2025
Furniture prices spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, since stay-at-home orders triggered a surge of demand while delivery bottlenecks crimped supply.
—Max Zahn, ABC News, 26 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for bottleneck
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bottleneck
Noun
-
If fries aren’t your jam, all four meat options — chicken, lamb, steak and falafel — are available as a standard gyro wrapped in a pita bread or as a platter with rice.—
Sacbee.com,
Sacbee.com,
12 Sep. 2025
-
That roster includes dishes like foie gras truffle with charred onion jam and a house croissant; a wild boar belly and antelope with pistachio, fermented harissa, and yogurt; and an Asian pear sorbet with aloe sabayon and ginger tapioca.—
Nicole Hoey,
Robb Report,
12 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
There are also more storylines in the linear version, with longer episodes meaning more stages, checkpoints and challenges along the way.—
Max Goldbart,
Deadline,
9 Sep. 2025
-
The path won’t always be linear.—
Zach Sweet,
Kansas City Star,
9 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
But over the years, the river had been dammed upstream, drying it up and killing the fish.—
David Gelles,
Time,
9 Sep. 2025
-
The avalanche temporarily dammed the Lonza River, which runs through Blatten, and small lakes, filled with dead trees and detritus from homes, formed on each side of the village.—
Daniel A. Gross,
New Yorker,
27 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Despite being given an injection of serum rushed from state laboratories in Albany, a bronchoscopy procedure to clear the congestion in his lungs, and three blood transfusions, Wallace passed away a few days later, with his wife and two young children at his bedside.—
Alan Lightman
September 12,
Literary Hub,
12 Sep. 2025
-
Even mild asthma exacerbations such as coughing or congestion can disrupt a child’s and family’s daily routines.—
Rhonda Conner-Warren,
The Conversation,
11 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
And if all the organic tofu suddenly triggers an irresistible urge to clog your arteries?—
Michael Deeds,
Idaho Statesman,
9 Sep. 2025
-
What started as a practical tool became a flood of inconsistent data with little shared structure, often clogging telemetry pipelines and observability systems.—
Bill Hineline,
Forbes.com,
9 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
The share of businesses saying that lack of transparency was hindering operations fell by 12 percentage points to 16%.—
Evelyn Cheng,
CNBC,
10 Sep. 2025
-
These challenges not only hinder women’s economic advancement but also limit businesses from reaching their full potential.—
C200,
Forbes.com,
9 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
This process pushes out sand using compressed air or steam to clean surfaces.—
Abigail Hasebroock,
Miami Herald,
11 Sep. 2025
-
At the ingestion and edge layer, data is securely collected, compressed and pre-filtered near the source, minimizing latency and ensuring sensitive data remains protected behind the firewall.—
Nagesh Nama,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
But Congress has long blocked that increase from taking effect, with lawmakers from both parties fearful about the political fallout of voting themselves a pay raise.—
David Mark,
The Washington Examiner,
12 Sep. 2025
-
That dire warning aside, California tribes are also suing for a preliminary injunction against Kalshi to block its prediction markets.—
Contessa Brewer,Alex Sherman,
CNBC,
11 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Bottleneck.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bottleneck. Accessed 15 Sep. 2025.
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