queue
UK/kjuː/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/kjʉw/
queue noun: a line of people, vehicles or other objects, usually one to be dealt with in sequence (i.e., the one at the front end is dealt with first, the one behind is dealt with next, and so on), and which newcomers join at the opposite end (the back).
Noun
queue (plural queues)
- A line of people, vehicles or other objects, usually one to be dealt with in sequence (i.e., the one at the front end is dealt with first, the one behind is dealt with next, and so on), and which newcomers join at the opposite end (the back).
- I was absent-minded at the moment and was last in the queue.1916, John Buchan, “Chapter 5”, in Greenmantle
- In a report published on October 31, Transport Focus said that a number of train companies were unable to convince it about their ability to sell a full range of tickets, handle cash payments, and avoid excessive queues at ticket machines.2023 November 15, 'Industry Insider', “Outbreak of common sense”, in RAIL, number 996, page 68
- A waiting list or other means of organizing people or objects into a first-come-first-served order.
- A data structure in which objects are added to one end, called the tail, and removed from the other, called the head (in the case of a FIFO queue). The term can also refer to a LIFO queue or stack where these ends coincide.
- Queue implementations are commonly based on insertion order as in first-in, first-out (FIFO) queues or last-in, first-out queues (LIFO queues are also known as stacks).2005, David Flanagan, Java in a Nutshell, p. 234
- An animal's tail.
- HESSE: Az., a lion, queue fourchée, rampt., barry of ten, arg. and gu., crowned, or, and holding in his dexter paw a sword, ppr., hilt and pommel, gold.1863, Charles Boutell, A Manual of Heraldry, page 369
- A men's hairstyle with a braid or ponytail at the back of the head, such as that worn by men in Imperial China.
- In the morning and evening, spruce Chinamen stroll about or chat at each other's doors, in blue trousers, white jacket, and a queue into which red silk is plaited till it reaches almost to their heels.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 213
- […], there were seated astraddle the whole hundred of the baronet's musqueteers, each engaged in plaiting into a queue the hair of the man who sat in front of him.1889, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, chapter XIX, in Micah Clarke: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co […], →OCLC
Verb
queue (third-person singular simple present queues, present participle queueing or queuing, simple past and past participle queued)
- To put oneself or itself at the end of a waiting line.
- Although there is a spacious circulating area beyond the platforms at Clacton, there is severe overcrowding on peak Saturdays; at times of pressure passengers have to queue out into the street [...]1959 April, B. Perren, “The Essex Coast Branches of the Great Eastern Line”, in Trains Illustrated, page 189
- Synonyms:
- join a queue, join the queue, line up
- To arrange themselves into a physical waiting queue.
- To add to a queue data structure.
- To fasten the hair into a queue.
- The sons, in short square skirted coats with rows of stupendous brass buttons, and their hair generally queued in the fashion of the times, especially if they could procure an eel skin for the purpose, it being esteemed throughout the country as potent nourisher and strengthener of the hair.1820, Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- Though Monroe the man has become a vague anachronistic figure in knee breeches and with queued, powdered hair, his name is perpetuated in the Monroe Doctrine, evoked by him as a temporary response to an immediate crisis.1968, Francis Russell, The American Heritage History of the Making of the Nation
- To matchmake.
- I'm queueing into a game.
queue meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
queue in Hindi
- line of people
- पंक्ति paṅkti, क़तार qatār
queue in Tamil
- line of people
- வரிசை varicai
queue in Marathi
- line of people
- रांग rāṅga
queue in Urdu
- line of people
- قِطار qitār, قَطار qatār
More languagesFewer languages
- queue in Bengali
- কাতার katar
- queue in Telugu
- క్యూ
- queue in Malayalam
- വരി vari
- queue in Kannada
- ಸರತಿಸಾಲು, ವರಸೆ, ಕ್ಯೂ, ಸರತಿಯ ಸಾಲು
- queue in Punjabi
- ਕਤਾਰ, ਕਤਾਰਬੱਧ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
- queue in Tagalog
- pila, tutsang
- queue in Arabic
- طابُور ṭābūr, صَفّ ṣaff, وَقَفَ فِي الصَّفّ waqafa fī aṣ-ṣaff
- queue in Malay
- beratur
- queue in Indonesian
- antre, antrean
- queue in Thai
- คิว kiu, แถวคอย
- queue in Vietnamese
- xếp nối đuôi, tóc đuôi sam, sắp hàng
Examples of queue in a sentence
- George Osborne said: “In terms of getting an international trade deal with the United States, we would have to get to the back of the queue.” And Obama said: “Would it be helpful if I said that?”[…].2026 June 23, “‘Geldof started flicking Vs at Farage’: the story of the Brexit campaign, told by those with a front-row seat”, in The...
- A large number of loyal officials, rather than shave the front part of the head and wear the Manchu queue, voluntarily shaved the whole head, […]1912, Herbert Allen Giles, China and the Manchus, Chapter III — Shun Chih
Synonyms of queue
Forms of queue
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | queues |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | queues |
| present participle | queueing |
| present participle | queuing |
| past participle | queued |
| past | queued |
Origin of queue
From Middle English queue, quew, qwew, couwe, from Anglo-Norman queue, keu and Old French cöe, cue, coe (“tail”), from Vulgar Latin cōda, from Latin cauda. See also Middle French queu, cueue. Doublet of coda and cola.
Words formed from queue
Phrases with queue
- job queue
- dole queue
- jump queue
- prio queue
- batch queue
- ready queue
- poison queue
- message queue
- circular queue
- priority queue
- jumps the queue
- jumped the queue
2 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with queue
Questions about queue
- What does queue mean?
- Queue means a line of people, vehicles or other objects, usually one to be dealt with in sequence (i.e., the one at the front end is dealt with first, the one behind is dealt with next, and so on), and which newcomers join at the opposite end (the back).
- What is queue in Hindi?
- Queue in Hindi is पंक्ति (paṅkti), क़तार (qatār). See Queue meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use queue in a sentence?
- George Osborne said: “In terms of getting an international trade deal with the United States, we would have to get to the back of the queue.” And Obama said: “Would it be helpful if I said that?”[…].
- What part of speech is queue?
- Queue can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce queue?
- Queue is pronounced /kjuː/ (UK).
- What is the plural of queue?
- The plural of queue is queues.
Words near queue in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: queue (page history and authors); কাতার (Bengali) (page history and authors); queue (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); വരി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); queue (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); queue (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-queue.ogg, en-au-queue.ogg.
Cite this entry: “queue.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/queue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.