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.

---

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

---

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.

---

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.

---

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

Such a limited founding population usually creates a severe genetic bottleneck.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026

Almost 15 years ago, Canada agreed to fully pay for the bridge's construction to bypass US political resistance and get the project, seen as necessary infrastructure to fix a trade bottleneck, moving.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

Planning rules implemented in London after the fire, however, are so detailed that seven in 10 projects have since failed to get a green light, creating a bottleneck, according to the CPS.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

"Investors are still desperate for anything bolted to AI infrastructure, especially if it sits close to the high-bandwidth memory bottleneck."

From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026

The flame seared the tip of the oiled cloth and sizzled toward the bottleneck.

From "The Rock and the River" by Kekla Magoon

However, some research suggests that severe population bottlenecks may accelerate the development of structural variants.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026

Purveyors of bearings, fasteners, pneumatics and other manufacturing staples should see demand outpace their capacity to easily meet it, potentially leading to bottlenecks similar to what investors are seeing with memory chips.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026

Increasing indium-phosphide substrate production should go a long way to easing bottlenecks for optical devices, as JX Advanced Metals sells its entire output to third parties.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

“We are basically reaching the absorption-capacity level,” Rutte said, with governments working to overcome two main bottlenecks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026

The sabotage targets had been carefully selected to pinpoint areas that, when attacked, would create bottlenecks in the American war industry.

From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple

Related Words

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