queue
/kju/noun, verb
queue is spelled Q-U-E-U-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 6.0 times per million words in written English, the 9,878th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “cue vs queue” about 9,900 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, queue means “A 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…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of queue is queues.
How many letters and syllables are in queue?
| Letters | 5: Q-U-E-U-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 6.0 times per million words; the 9,878th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is queue?
Queue appears 6.0 times per million words in written English, the 9,878th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce queue?
- UK /kjuː/
- British /kjʉw/
- US /kju/
Queue has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-queue.ogg, En-au-queue.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with queue
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: cue, que (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: que.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with queue?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as queue from its last stressed vowel (/u/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of queue
- queues plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- queueing participle, present
- queuing participle, present
- queued participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does queue mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
CommonwealthIrelandUKA 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).
- 2
A waiting list or other means of organizing people or objects into a first-come-first-served order.
- 3
A data structure in which objects are added to one end, called the tail, and removed from the other, called the head (in the case of a FIFO queue). The term can also refer to a LIFO queue or stack where these ends coincide.
- 4
An animal's tail.
- 5
A men's hairstyle with a braid or ponytail at the back of the head, such as that worn by men in Imperial China.
A large number of loyal officials, rather than shave the front part of the head and wear the Manchu queue, voluntarily shaved the whole head, […]
verb
- 1
To put oneself or itself at the end of a waiting line.
- 2
To arrange themselves into a physical waiting queue.
- 3
To add to a queue data structure.
- 4
To fasten the hair into a queue.
- 5
To matchmake.
I'm queueing into a game.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Queue in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | queue , natte , file , faire la queue, se mettre en ligne |
| Spanish | cola de un animal , coleta , fila, cola, línea, hila |
| Portuguese | rabicho, rabo de cavalo , fila, alinhamento , entrar na fila , fila (FIFO) |
| German | Schlange, Warteschlange, Reihe , sich anstellen, Schlange stehen , Warteliste |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does queue come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).