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

In 2016, CEO Niraj Shah asked her to become the chief people officer, or CPO, to oversee talent acquisition globally—especially technical talent—since that was the company’s primary growth bottleneck, she said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

“The AI trade bore the brunt of the mover lower,” he added, with the AI bottleneck and power themes also badly hit.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 23, 2026

The biggest bottleneck to the global trade of energy is no longer crude oil, according to the head of Kuwait’s state oil company.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026

The real bottleneck remains getting enough memory chips to deliver all those servers, says Dell.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

I said "bottleneck" at the airport, "bottleneck" on the train to Normandy, and "bottleneck" when presented with the pile of stones that was Hugh's house in the country.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

Chipmaker Intel was the hardest hit, with its shares sinking as much as 30 percent after it gave a weaker-than-expected revenue forecast for the fourth quarter, citing weakness in the PC market and manufacturing bottlenecks.

From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026

While they said that the gap is “real” and a constraint to the buildout, they added that “many investors” are taking the view that companies will find creative ways around the bottlenecks.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026

However, moving alumina into the region and shipping finished metal out remain potential bottlenecks, as supply chains remain exposed to renewed disruptions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 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

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

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

---