bottleneck

noun

plural bottlenecks

1

a

: a narrow route

b

: a point of traffic congestion

2

a

: someone or something that slows or halts free movement and progress

working to streamline production and eliminate bottlenecks

b

: impasse

They reached a bottleneck in the negotiations.

c

: a dramatic reduction in the size of a population (as of a species) that results in a decrease in genetic variation

3

or bottleneck guitar : a style of guitar playing in which glissando effects are produced by sliding an object (such as a knife blade or the neck of a bottle) along the strings

Synonyms of bottleneck

• jam
• congestion

Examples of bottleneck in a Sentence

Bridge construction has created a bottleneck on the southern part of Main Street.

All decisions must be approved by the committee, and this is where the company runs into bottlenecks.

Recent Examples on the Web

But in the months since, vessel traffic has been almost nonexistent — the bottleneck being the primary reason for the sharp rise in global energy prices. —Steve Kopack, NBC news, 29 May 2026

Regulatory review timelines stretch, validation cycles repeat and certification becomes a bottleneck. —John Wall, Forbes.com, 28 May 2026

The bottleneck wasn’t the technology. —Rob Giglio, Fortune, 28 May 2026

Only 13% cited AI and data talent gaps as a primary obstacle, suggesting the bottleneck is organizational readiness, not workforce supply. —Jessica Alvarado Gamez, Denver Post, 27 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1850, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for bottleneck

• biotech
• quarterdeck
• turtleneck
• zapotec
• aztec
• breakneck
• codec
• exec
• mixtec
• paycheck
• pinchbeck
• recheck

Kids Definition

bottleneck

noun

bot·​tle·​neck

ˈbät-ᵊl-ˌnek

1

: a narrow passageway

2

: someone or something that holds up progress

a traffic bottleneck