queue

American  

[kyoo] / kju /

noun

• queues
  plural

1. a braid of hair worn hanging down behind.

2. a file or line, especially of people waiting their turn.

3. Computers. a FIFO-organized sequence of items, as data, messages, jobs, or the like, waiting for action.

---

verb (used with or without object)

• queues,
  present (3rd person singular)
• queued,
  past participle,  past
• queuing
  present participle

1. to form in a line while waiting (often followed byup ).

2. Computers. to arrange (data, jobs, messages, etc.) into a queue.

queue British  

/ kjuː /

noun

1. a line of people, vehicles, etc, waiting for something

   a queue at the theatre

2. computing a list in which entries are deleted from one end and inserted at the other

3. a pigtail

4. See queue-jump

---

verb

1. to form or remain in a line while waiting

2. computing to arrange (a number of programs) in a predetermined order for accessing by a computer

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• queuer
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• queues
  plural

Participles

• queuing
  present
• queued
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• queue
  simple
• queues
  simple
• have queued
  perfect
• has queued
  perfect
• am queuing
  progressive
• are queuing
  progressive
• is queuing
  progressive
• have been queuing
  perfect progressive
• has been queuing
  perfect progressive

Past

• queued
  simple
• had queued
  perfect
• was queuing
  progressive
• were queuing
  progressive
• had been queuing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will queue
  simple
• will have queued
  perfect
• will be queuing
  progressive
• will have been queuing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of queue

First recorded in 1585–95; from Middle French, from Latin cauda, cōda “tail”

Explanation

A queue is a line of things, usually people. If you go to the store on a big sale day, there will probably be a long queue at the check-out. Queue comes from the Latin cauda, for "tail." Outside the United States it means a line of people or vehicles waiting their turn, so if your English friend talks about queuing up for the movies, that means getting in line for a ticket. We also use it in computing to mean an order of messages to be sent. In a big office, you send documents to the printer queue, and they're printed in the order they are sent.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

queue queues queued queuing

He noted that there is “not one electron” of always-on power, sometimes referred to as baseload, in the California Independent System Operator’s interconnection queue.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026

The agency offices sit in a dense warren of buildings above a shopping precinct, where vendors sell local fruit and workers queue for takeaway sour soup rice noodles.

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026

In the microbiology lab, she prepares the stacks of samples piling up in the queue for examination.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

If your podcast queue is overloaded with relentless news and true crime, let this be your breath of fresh country air.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026

I put my headphones on and queue up the Temple of the Dog album.

From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon

People posted on social media, reporting "crazy queues" for the shuttle bus and blue flashing lights on the main road outside the stadium.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

Long queues of people could be seen evacuating towns on foot, by motorbike and car, some piled into the back of pickup trucks.

From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026

The situation had eased at the end of July, but queues and local shortages of some fuel types have reemerged in Moscow in recent days.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

The paper also reports that thousands of holidaymakers are facing huge queues at Europe's ports, with blazes in south-west France forcing the evacuation of more than 40,000 people and Spain declaring a national emergency.

From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026

People began to form up in queues to say good-bye.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

The Russian capital braced Wednesday for a possible fresh wave of fuel shortages as drivers queued nervously to fill up tanks after recent Ukrainian strikes.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

At Roundhay Park in Leeds, hundreds gathered and queued to get a look through a telescope set up by Leeds Astronomical Society.

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

Young people draped in Indian flags queued for food, painted placards and posed for photographs, while rows of police and paramilitary personnel sealed every road to parliament around them.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

Customers queued in long lines to snap up a special-edition Harry Potter collection last year, for example.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026

“Randos,” I said, and instantly she had us queued for one of the new dungeons.

From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows

As the mains outages take effect, people have been queuing at water tanker trucks sent to affected regions to fill up large bottles.

From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026

The high number of UK passengers arriving means some degree of queuing is to be expected, but he insisted people should "not be afraid" because things would move quickly.

From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026

But for several weeks, queuing for petrol has become a staple of life during the dragging Ukraine conflict, causing impatience at petrol stations.

From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 2026

Those queuing to meet her included a starstruck 21-year-old man clutching a 1980s vinyl album.

From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026

He sleeps with his head twisted in his hands, and the mosquitoes are queuing up for his blood.

From "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak