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

“Failure to stay seated will result in removal from the park,” reads one sign located in the queue for the ride.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

Amit Yair, 77, was blunter as he waited in a long queue to order coffee.

From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026

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

"There was a queue along the quay," he said, while many businesses had ordered glasses which would now "failed to arrive on time".

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

I put myself in the call queue and began my twelve-hour shift.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

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 collision led to parts of Colchester being gridlocked throughout the day, while A12 queues stretched back to Marks Tey.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

Tickets went on sale Tuesday and were going briskly, with digital wait times reported of more than four hours in queues with as many as 13,000 guests.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

Every time I turned my e-mail program on, I faced hundreds of messages from kids, students, former students, parents, and teachers stacked in vast queues; it took hours just to download the mail.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz

It said this has occurred during shifts where staff have queued for hours outside hospitals to hand over patients in stifling temperatures.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

Fans queued at New Street station to have their photo taken with the mechanical Ozzy the bull statue, which has been specially dressed up for Ozzy Day, receiving a free commemorative Polaroid.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026

The islands' roughly 200,000 inhabitants have queued at petrol stations in recent days and thronged hardware stores to buy plywood and supermarkets for food, bottled water and other essentials.

From Barron's ● Jul. 4, 2026

The fathers whose sons had played merited a more aggrandized status in the fraternity of older men who queued along the passageway.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

"Right now there are about 15 tractors queuing to fill up," Jean-Pierre Robert, who manages a lakeside hotel, told AFP.

From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 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

However, compared to a premium of 38%, these are negligible and without unforeseen obstacles, hedge funds and proprietary trading desks will be queuing up to put the trade on.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026

An initial trial of the tool at Wealden Ridge Medical Partnership in Sussex saw a 29% reduction in the number of people queuing on the phone for an appointment.

From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026

The incongruity of queuing to beg for food made her feel uncomfortable, blemished.

From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie