queue

noun \ ˈkyü \

Updated on: 23 May 2018

Definition of queue

1 : a braid of hair usually worn hanging at the back of the head

2 : a waiting line especially of persons or vehicles

3 a : a sequence of messages or jobs held in temporary storage awaiting transmission or processing

b : a data structure that consists of a list of records such that records are added at one end and removed from the other

See queue defined for English-language learners

See queue defined for kids

Examples of queue in a Sentence

The Tiong Bahru hawker center in Singapore might well be my favorite place in the world to start the day. I remember vividly my first visit: I arrived jetlagged and hungry at seven in the morning to find vendors stir-frying greens in gigantic woks, sending up whooshes of smoke fragrant with garlic. Long queues of businessmen and construction workers and families who likely lived in the nearby housing projects snaked from the cash register of each stall. —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.

Recent Examples of queue from the Web

Among those lined up in the microphone queue is Erica Walker, a researcher who studies the public health effects of noise.

— chris berdik, BostonGlobe.com, "Is Boston getting noisier? This app is designed to help us find out," 15 May 2018
Set designers painted on rust, dirtied air vents, and added a general patina of schmutz to the queue scenes, all in service of the story.

— arthur levine, USA TODAY, "Universal Orlando's Fast & Furious – Supercharged: Does it live up to the movies?," 14 May 2018
Polling booths opened at 8 a.m. Wednesday and long queues had already formed at some voting locations in Kuala Lumpur and other cities.

— Fox News, "Malaysians queue to vote in hotly contested election," 8 May 2018
Spread over multiple rooms, the attraction's queue has been constructed to look like the F&F crew's warehouse headquarters.

— matt cabral, The Hollywood Reporter, "What It's Like Riding with the 'Fast & Furious' Crew at Universal Studios," 5 May 2018
Louis is now fifth: Currently, the queue starts with Prince Charles, then William, followed by the new baby’s older siblings George and Charlotte.

— caroline framke, Vox, "A new royal baby boy has arrived. His name is Louis Arthur Charles.," 27 Apr. 2018
By the time doors opened, the queue stretched 500 people long.

— josh noel, chicagotribune.com, "Transient Artisan Ales the star in southwest Michigan's best little beer town," 26 Apr. 2018
Slotting a half-baked concept at the front of the queue seems, at best, wildly premature.

— jonathan chait, Daily Intelligencer, "Democrats Are Rushing Into a Job Guarantee. It Could Be a Huge Mistake.," 25 Apr. 2018
That could cut queues, and is an inadvertent throwback to those glamour days—Boeing's famed Clipper also had onboard urinals.

— jack stewart, WIRED, "Bunkbeds in the Cargo Hold Trumpet a New Golden Age of Flying," 19 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'queue.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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.

Origin and Etymology of queue

French, literally, tail, from Old French cue, coe, from Latin cauda, coda

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1748

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

queue Synonyms

Synonyms

column, cue, file, line, range, string, train;

Related Words

echelon, rank, row, tier;

chain, progression, sequence, succession;

array;

Other Computer-Related Terms

adware, flash, kludge, phishing, recursive, router

queue

verb \ ˈkyü \

Definition of queue

queued; queuing or queueing

transitive verb

: to arrange or form in a queue (see ¹queue)

intransitive verb

: to line up or wait in a queue —often used with up

—

queuer

noun

See queue defined for English-language learners

Examples of queue in a Sentence

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.

Recent Examples of queue from the Web

Residents queue to fill containers from a source of natural spring water in Cape Town, South Africa, February 2.

— brandon miller, CNN, "Could icebergs be the answer to Cape Town's water crisis?," 1 May 2018
Following the credit crunch, which started in the summer of 2007, a run on Northern Rock began, with depositors queuing outside branches to withdraw their money.

— mike bird, WSJ, "Former CEO of Failed U.K. Bank Sticks to Finance, Cricket Postcrisis," 30 Mar. 2018
Families queue at restaurants on the banks of the Tigris.

— The Economist, "Fifteen years after America’s invasion, Iraq is getting back on its feet," 28 Mar. 2018
From the sound of it, Stories Playlist will be a personalized approach to auto-advance that allows users to queue up Stories from their feed and set them to play one after another.

— noelle devoe, Seventeen, "Snapchat Just Ditched Its Most Annoying Feature, Making it a NEARLY Perfect App," 10 Oct. 2016
Hundreds of residents are being forced to queue overnight to stock up on water, as Cape Town struggles with a severe drought.

— elliott lapin, Houston Chronicle, "Student trainers serve as more than just a water boy/girl," 5 Apr. 2018
There are more than a few brand-new stories included here, and there are also some new installations in already beloved series queued up in this to-read list.

— caroline rogers, Southern Living, "Beach Reads Perfect for Summer Vacation," 3 Apr. 2018
Any resistance from Alaves had diminished after the third goal and the Real players were queuing up to to try and add to the lead.

— SI.com, "WATCH: Real Madrid Makes it Six Wins in Seven With Dominant Victory Against Alaves," 24 Feb. 2018
There are enough bathrooms that fans no longer would need to queue up for porta potties.

— ken goe, OregonLive.com, "Ducks need to come clean about Hayward's seating capacity: Oregon track & field rundown," 25 Mar. 2018

Origin and Etymology of queue

see ¹queue

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1777

in the meaning defined at transitive sense

See Words from the same year

QUEUE Defined for English Language Learners

queue

noun

Definition of queue for English Language Learners

: a line of people who are waiting for something
computers : a series of instructions that are stored in a computer so that they can be processed later