plural bottlenecks
1
a
: a narrow route
b
: a point of traffic congestion
2
a
: someone or something that slows or halts free movement and progress
working to streamline production and eliminate bottlenecks
b
: impasse
They reached a bottleneck in the negotiations.
c
: a dramatic reduction in the size of a population (as of a species) that results in a decrease in genetic variation
3
or bottleneck guitar
: a style of guitar playing in which glissando effects are produced by sliding an object (such as a knife blade or the neck of a bottle) along the strings
bottlenecked; bottlenecking; bottlenecks
: to slow or halt by causing a bottleneck
Synonyms
Examples of bottleneck in a Sentence
Noun
Bridge construction has created a bottleneck on the southern part of Main Street.
All decisions must be approved by the committee, and this is where the company runs into bottlenecks.
Recent Examples on the Web
Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 20 May 2013
To compare pre- and post-bottleneck genetic diversity, the researchers sequenced DNA from 1,000-year-old penguin bones on the island.
—Sarah Zhang, Discover Magazine, 22 Feb. 2012
Charles Morey, Forbes, 19 Dec. 2024
No matter how fast the computer half gets, our squishy, antique hardware will still be the bottleneck.
—Michael Irving, New Atlas, 18 Dec. 2024
Mark Murphy, Forbes, 20 Dec. 2024
Border security Trump left President Biden a border with relatively few unauthorized migrant encounters per month but primed to explode with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people bottlenecked south of the U.S.-Mexico line.
—Rafael Bernal, The Hill, 20 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for bottleneck 
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Adjective
The impact of the pre-bottleneck period is attenuated, because much of the population was simply not genetically sampled.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 20 May 2013
To compare pre- and post-bottleneck genetic diversity, the researchers sequenced DNA from 1,000-year-old penguin bones on the island.
—Sarah Zhang, Discover Magazine, 22 Feb. 2012
Noun
Key questions include: Are there recurring bottlenecks in administrative or compliance processes?
—Charles Morey, Forbes, 19 Dec. 2024
No matter how fast the computer half gets, our squishy, antique hardware will still be the bottleneck.
—Michael Irving, New Atlas, 18 Dec. 2024
Verb
Regular peer reviews focusing on collaborative outcomes rather than individual contributions help maintain momentum, while clear escalation paths prevent the formation of knowledge bottlenecks that covert narcissists often exploit.
—Mark Murphy, Forbes, 20 Dec. 2024
Border security Trump left President Biden a border with relatively few unauthorized migrant encounters per month but primed to explode with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people bottlenecked south of the U.S.-Mexico line.
—Rafael Bernal, The Hill, 20 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for bottleneck
Dictionary Entries Near bottleneck
Cite this Entry
“Bottleneck.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bottleneck. Accessed 24 Dec. 2024.
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