Queue Meaning
/kjuː/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA line of people, vehicles or other objects, usually one to be dealt with in sequence (i.e., the one at the front end is dealt with first, the one behind is dealt with next, and so on), and which newcomers join at the opposite end (the back).
nounA waiting list or other means of organizing people or objects into a first-come-first-served order.
Sentence Examples
There was not a long queue at the bus stop.
However, you have to queue...
CEFR Practice Quiz
People formed a single file, so a long ____ of people stretched down the street.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She joined the long ____ outside the theater and waited patiently for over an hour.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English queue, quew, qwew, couwe, from Anglo-Norman queue, keu and Old French cöe, cue, coe (“tail”), from Vulgar Latin cōda, from Latin cauda. See also Middle French queu, cueue. Doublet of coda and cola.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I was absent-minded at the moment and was last in the queue."
— 1916, John Buchan, “Chapter 5”, in Greenmantle:
"In a report published on October 31, Transport Focus said that a number of train companies were unable to convince it about their ability to sell a full range of tickets, handle cash payments, and avoid excessive queues at ticket machines."
— 2023 November 15, 'Industry Insider', “Outbreak of common sense”, in RAIL, number 996, page 68:
"HESSE: Az., a lion, queue fourchée, rampt., barry of ten, arg. and gu., crowned, or, and holding in his dexter paw a sword, ppr., hilt and pommel, gold."
— 1863, Charles Boutell, A Manual of Heraldry, page 369:
"In the morning and evening, spruce Chinamen stroll about or chat at each other's doors, in blue trousers, white jacket, and a queue into which red silk is plaited till it reaches almost to their heels."
— 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 213:
"[…], there were seated astraddle the whole hundred of the baronet's musqueteers, each engaged in plaiting into a queue the hair of the man who sat in front of him."
— 1889, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, chapter XIX, in Micah Clarke: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co […], →OCLC:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
People formed a single file, so a long ____ of people stretched down the street.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She joined the long ____ outside the theater and waited patiently for over an hour.