queue

noun

\ ˈkyü

Definition of queue

(Entry 1 of 2)

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

2 : a waiting line especially of persons or vehicles

3a : 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

queue

verb

\ ˈkyü

queued; queuing or queueing

Definition of queue (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

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

intransitive verb

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

Other Words from queue Synonyms Is it que, queue, or q? Example Sentences Learn More about queue

Keep scrolling for more

Synonyms for queue

Synonyms: Noun

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

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

Noun

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.

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.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

The airport recently added deicing facilities and changed the way aircraft queue for deicing, but hasn’t solved the problem. — Scott Mccartney, WSJ, "Denver: The WSJ Airport Rankings’ Rocky Mountain High-Scorer," 14 Nov. 2018 November is officially here, so get ready for a slew of holiday-themed TV shows and movies to hit your queues, theaters, and basic cable. — Christopher Rosa, Glamour, "9 TV Shows and Movies to Watch to Get Your November Started Right," 4 Nov. 2018 Join the queue for a small tub of soya: barely sweet, custard-soft tofu that satisfies, variously, as a dessert, an appetizer, a palate-cleanser, or a digestif. — Hanya Yanagihara, Condé Nast Traveler, "50 Things to Do in Asia Before You Die," 24 Sep. 2018 Visitors to trying to get their hands on the new coins crashed the Mint’s website on Thursday, and visitors were asked to join an orderly queue. — Emma Ross-thomas, Bloomberg.com, "Brexit Bulletin: May’s Five New Tests," 2 Mar. 2018 Luka Modric has become the latest player to join the queue to the Real Madrid treatment room, with the injury problems starting to pile up for coach Zinedine Zidane. — Chicago Tribune, chicagotribune.com, "Modric the latest to join Real Madrid injury list," 20 Feb. 2018 For decades, Mars understandably stood at the front of the queue for NASA's robotic exploration missions. — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, "A congressman’s loss clouds the future of two demanding missions to Europa," 3 Dec. 2018 Others will try to cross the border illegally or turn themselves in to Border Patrol to avoid the long queue at entry points. — Linda Qiu, The Seattle Times, "A Fact-Checker’s Guide to Thanksgiving Politics," 21 Nov. 2018 Plus, the Oscar-winning film Spotlight, Spider-Man 3, and Tarzan & Jane are all leaving your queues as well. — Christopher Rosa, Glamour, "Leaving Netflix December 2018: Say Goodbye to These 42 Movies and TV Shows," 20 Nov. 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

There's even a section of Thanksgiving songs for kids, so choose your favorites and queue up the ultimate turkey tunes. — Taysha Murtaugh, Country Living, "35 Thanksgiving Songs About Food, Family, and Gratitude," 24 July 2018 After receiving a band, a dozen odd people queued up on Mercer Street to enter the store. — Steff Yotka, Vogue, "Palace x Polo Ralph Lauren’s Collab Arrived Today With a Civilized Drop in New York," 9 Nov. 2018 Thousands will queue on the west front of the Capitol in the summertime heat for the opportunity to spend just a few seconds walking past the casket of John Sidney McCain. — Chad Pergram, Fox News, "History at the Capitol Rotunda, where McCain's casket will lie in state," 30 Aug. 2018 According to Twitch, GIFs will be queued up and delivered one-by-one. — Megan Farokhmanesh, The Verge, "Twitch broadcasts are getting GIFs," 17 July 2018 When Telenor and Ooredoo launched operations in 2014, people queued for hours for SIM cards that cost around a dollar. — Timothy Mclaughlin, WIRED, "How Facebook’s Rise Fueled Chaos and Confusion in Myanmar," 6 July 2018 Even without a confirmation of the exact product lineup, fans are already queueing in the comments section to purchase. — Leah Prinzivalli, Allure, "Jaclyn Hill Just Teased a Makeup Brush Collaboration With Morphe Cosmetics," 20 Aug. 2018 Burundians queue to cast their votes in the constitutional referendum in Buye, north of Ngozi, in northern Burundi Thursday, May 17, 2018. — Washington Post, "UN envoy urges dialogue with opposition after Burundi vote," 26 May 2018 To him, this feels tantamount to divulging state secrets, even though anyone in the NHL can queue up his greatest hits on YouTube or Hudl. — Alex Prewitt, SI.com, "With Technique, Timing and Power, Brent Burns is the San Jose Sharks' Shot Machine," 11 Jan. 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.