bottleneck

IPA/ˈbɒtlnek/
KK[bˈɑtəlnˌɛk]IPA/ˈbɑːtlnek/

bottleneck — noun

  • bottlenecksingular
  • bottlenecksplural

1. a section of road that is too narrow or too busy, making vehicles slow down or c

1.nounB2
Definition

a section of road that is too narrow or too busy, making vehicles slow down or come to a halt

Example

The old bridge is the worst bottleneck on the entire motorway.

collocation: worst bottleneck

Salma left home an hour early to avoid the morning bottleneck near the factory.

collocation: avoid the bottleneck

Common collocations
  • traffic bottleneck
  • major bottleneck
  • create a bottleneck
  • bottleneck at the bridge
Synonyms
  • congestion point

    more formal; often used in traffic planning reports

  • chokepoint

    emphasises the physical narrowness rather than the resulting delay

Common Mistakes

There was a bottleneck on the motorway for ten miles.
There was a bottleneck at the tunnel entrance that caused a ten-mile jam.
a bottleneck is the narrow point that triggers the jam, not the jam itself.

2. something that blocks or slows the flow of work, information, or activity so tha

2.nounB2
Definition

something that blocks or slows the flow of work, information, or activity so that everything takes longer than it should

Example

The small legal team has been a bottleneck for every new project this year.

Mauricio identified the approval process as the main bottleneck slowing the team down.

pattern: identify [X] as the bottleneck

Common collocations
  • bureaucratic bottleneck
  • administrative bottleneck
  • production bottleneck
  • remove a bottleneck
Synonyms
  • obstacle

    broader term; any kind of barrier, not necessarily a process delay

  • hold-up

    more informal; focuses on the delay itself rather than the structural cause

  • logjam

    suggests a pile-up of waiting items, especially in bureaucracy

Antonyms
  • facilitator

    something that makes progress easier rather than blocking it

Usage Note

Often used about bureaucratic systems, company workflows, or any situation where tasks move through stages and get stuck at one point.

bottleneck — verb

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/2

A bottleneck, an obstacle, a hurdle, an impediment, and a logjam all refer to things that slow progress — but they carry different images. An obstacle is the most general: anything that stands in the way (a financial obstacle, a language obstacle). A hurdle suggests something you can overcome with effort (each exam is a hurdle on the path to a degree). An impediment often describes a lasting condition that makes something harder (a speech impediment, an impediment to trade). A logjam pictures a pile-up of unresolved items (a logjam of court cases). A bottleneck is the most specific: it imagines a narrow point in a process where flow is restricted — things back up behind it, and widening that point fixes the whole system. For example, a company might face an obstacle (a competitor), a hurdle (a licensing exam for staff), an impediment (outdated regulations), a logjam (a backlog of orders), and a bottleneck (one slow department that holds up all the others).

obstacle ↗hurdle ↗impediment ↗logjam ↗

Common collocations

Phrases

  • create a bottleneck
  • become a bottleneck
  • remove a bottleneck

Prepositions

  • bottleneck in
  • bottleneck of
  • bottleneck at

Etymology

English

From the narrow neck of a bottle. The word was first used in the 1850s as a literal description of a bottle's neck. By the late 19th century, it had spread to describe roads that narrowed like a bottle's neck, causing traffic to jam up. From there it broadened to any system or process where flow is restricted at a single point.

First known use

1854

1854, in the meaning defined above Noun