noun
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the act of blocking or state of being blocked
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an object causing an obstruction
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of blockage
Explanation
Something that physically obstructs or blocks an opening or tube is a blockage. A blockage in your sink drain can make it overflow. There are two main kinds of blockages — the first affects your plumbing, impeding water from flowing through your pipes. The other type of blockage is a medical condition, affecting your circulatory system. The blockage in your uncle's arteries might mean he needs surgery. The noun blockage, from about 1827, comes from block, "solid piece," from the Old French bloc, "block of wood."
Vocabulary lists containing blockage
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -age
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-age, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
She died after suffering a pulmonary embolism, a sudden, dangerous blockage in a lung artery, resulting from deep vein thrombosis.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
Qianggong Zhang, head of climate and environmental risks at ICIMOD, warned of the potential for a second flood because of an ongoing blockage upstream.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
The U.A.E. has managed to steer much of its oil around the blockage in Hormuz by piping it across the desert to its eastern coast on the Gulf of Oman.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
But the sinus’s drainage pathways go direct into the nose, making it prone to regular blockage and infection, a developmental byproduct rather than a purposeful adaptation.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
And sometimes a slicer is not working fast enough but the bread keeps coming and there is a blockage.
From "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon
That’s partially the consequence of blockages of the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial thoroughfare not only for middle eastern oil, but also for such industrial inputs as fertilizer and aluminum.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
To help ease blockages at the airport, an "automated people mover" train connecting it to the city's sparse subway system was scheduled to go into service in 2023.
From Barron's ● May 27, 2026
There is also a worry about the economic impact of blockages to the Strait of Hormuz – a vital artery of world trade and oil shipments which sits below Iran.
From BBC ● Feb. 28, 2026
These blockages interfere with the brain's ability to clear harmful substances and may appear well before clear dementia symptoms develop.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 3, 2026
In recent demonstrations, teams of tiny magnetic robots—each about the size of a grain of sand—cleared blockages in artificial blood vessels by forming chains to push through the obstructions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2025
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
