gridlock

American  

[grid-lok] / ˈgrɪdˌlɒk /

noun

1. the stoppage of free vehicular movement in an urban area because key intersections are blocked by traffic.

2. the blocking of an intersection by vehicular traffic entering the intersection but unable to pass through it.

3. any situation in which nothing can move or proceed in any direction.

   a financial gridlock due to high interest rates.

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gridlock British  

/ ˈɡrɪdˌlɒk /

noun

1. obstruction of urban traffic caused by queues of vehicles forming across junctions and causing further queues to form in the intersecting streets

2. a point in a dispute at which no agreement can be reached; deadlock

   political gridlock

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verb

1. (tr) (of traffic) to block or obstruct (an area)

Other Word Forms

• gridlocked
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of gridlock

An Americanism dating back to 1975–80; grid + lock ¹

Explanation

Gridlock is what happens when there's so much traffic on a road or highway that it slows to a stop. If your bus gets stalled in gridlock on the way to school, you'll be late for first period. While gridlock is commonly used as a synonym for a traffic jam, strictly speaking the term is more specific. During gridlock, traffic is backed up in different directions, so that lines of cars block several intersecting streets. In the worst gridlock, vehicles in the grid of streets are unable to move forward or to back up. Drivers can avoid this kind of gridlock by waiting to enter the intersection until there's room to move all the way through it.

Example Sentences

Now they, too, are concerned about the potential for gridlock.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 26, 2026

Demonstrators, many organising online outside of formal representative bodies, have also used convoys on motorways to snarl traffic and tractors to gridlock central Dublin on occasions.

From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026

“By distributing traffic amongst multiple locations rather than funneling it all into the central terminal area we can reduce gridlock, improve safety, and give passengers better options on how to get to LAX,” Reich said.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 9, 2026

It is one of the bloc’s few federal institutions and can make decisions affecting hundreds of millions of people without being constrained by Brussels’s political gridlock.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 21, 2026

Hoping to avoid dangerous gridlock on the summit ridge, Hall held a big powwow with leaders of the other expeditions in Base Camp.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

Related Words

• bottleneck
• congestion
• impasse
• logjam