bottleneck

American  

[bot-l-nek] / ˈbɒt lˌnɛk /

noun

• bottlenecks
  plural

1. a narrow entrance or passageway.

2. a place or stage in a process at which progress is impeded.

3. Also called slide guitar. a method of guitar playing that produces a gliding sound by pressing a metal bar or glass tube against the strings.

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verb (used with object)

1. to hamper or confine by or as if by a bottleneck.

verb (used without object)

1. to become hindered by or as if by a bottleneck.

bottleneck British  

/ ˈbɒtəlˌnɛk /

noun

1. 1. a narrow stretch of road or a junction at which traffic is or may be held up

   2. the hold up

2. something that holds up progress, esp of a manufacturing process

3. music

   1. the broken-off neck of a bottle placed over a finger and used to produce a buzzing effect in a style of guitar-playing originally part of the American blues tradition

   2. the style of guitar playing using a bottleneck

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verb

1. (tr) to be or cause an obstruction in

bottleneck Scientific  

/ bŏt′l-nĕk′ /

1. An abrupt and severe reduction in the number of individuals during the history of a species, resulting in the loss of diversity from the gene pool. The generations following the bottleneck are more genetically homogenous than would otherwise be expected. Bottlenecks often occur in consequence of a catastrophic event.

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bottleneck Cultural  

1. The point at which an industry or economic system has to slow its growth because one or more of its components cannot keep up with demand.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bottlenecks
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bottleneck

First recorded in 1895–1900; bottle ¹ + neck

Explanation

A bottleneck is a type of traffic jam, when cars get stuck or slowed down in a narrow part of the roadway. You might leave work two hours later than usual to avoid a bottleneck. Anything that gets stalled in a narrow area, whether it's auto traffic or pedestrians, can be called a bottleneck. Information can also get stuck in a kind of bottleneck, if the system itself creates a delay. The term comes from the shape of an actual bottleneck, or the narrow neck or mouth of a bottle.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bottleneck bottlenecks

And as SpaceX allocates satellite-launch services for its own use, a launch bottleneck is gripping the wider industry and could hamper AST SpaceMobile’s ability to send satellites into space.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026

The export disruptions have pushed U.S. wheat futures to three-year highs and could accelerate inflation in food prices if the bottleneck isn't removed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

The disruptions have pushed U.S. wheat futures to three-year highs in recent weeks, and could accelerate food inflation if the bottleneck isn’t removed soon, analysts warn.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

But critics say that streaming services are increasingly encouraging listeners to play the same playlists of familiar songs over and over again, creating a bottleneck that makes it harder for new music to break through.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

Gregor imagined the bottleneck a hundred bats would cause trying to get in the door downstairs.

From "Gregor the Overlander" by Suzanne Collins

Port congestion in the West and bottlenecks at the Panama Canal are also pushing rates higher, Choi says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026

A venture-capital firm specializing in deep tech has raised more than $50 million to invest in startups that can help solve physical bottlenecks in artificial intelligence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

Junctions on the M4 in Newport could close, and a new bridge built across the Menai Strait, as part of Welsh government plans for two notorious transport bottlenecks.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

“By modernizing and upgrading turbines, steam generators, and digital control systems at operating plants, uprates deliver substantial capacity gains without the multi-year timelines or interconnection bottlenecks associated with greenfield construction,” the blog post noted.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

Unfortunately, the nanoseconds used up in a simple computer operation do add up to lengthy bottlenecks on intractable problems, many of which would require millennia to solve in general.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

Related Words

• barrier
• blockage
• congestion
• hindrance
• impediment
• snag
• traffic jam