bottleneck.

A point where limited capacity restricts movement through a place or system.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• traffic bottleneck
• entrance bottleneck
• create a bottleneck

On the page

Ticket checks created a bottleneck at the festival entrance.

The only crossing became a bottleneck every morning.

Adding a second exit removed the bottleneck without enlarging the square.

Usage notes

Primary category: setting. For setting, an access point or passage where flow slows. The problem may be spatial or procedural; a narrow place is not a bottleneck if demand never exceeds capacity. Plural: bottlenecks. No other inflection applies to this noun.