Word Confusion: Cue versus Queue

Plural for the noun: cues
Gerund: cuing, cueing

Third person present verb: cues
Past tense or past participle: cued
Present participle: cuing, cueing

Variant spelling of queue [US]

Plural for the noun: queues
Gerund: queuing, queueing

Third person present verb: queues
Past tense or past participle: queued
Present participle: queuing, queueing

• A signal for action
• A piece of information or circumstance that aids the memory in retrieving details not recalled spontaneously
  • Stimulus
• [Psychology] A feature of something perceived that is used in the brain’s interpretation of the perception
  • A sensory signal used to identify experiences, facilitate memory, or organize responses
• A hint or indication about how to behave in particular circumstances
• A facility for playing through an audio or video recording very rapidly until a desired starting point is reached

The part a person is to play

• A prescribed or necessary course of action

[Archaic] Frame of mind

• Mood

[Pool, billiards, snooker] A long, straight, tapering wooden rod for striking the ball ²

[Shuffleboard] A long, usually wooden stick with a concave head, used to propel the disks

Hair caught at the back forming a tail or braid

A queue or file, as of persons awaiting their turn

Spelling the letter Q, q ³

Verb, intransitive:
Use a cue to strike a ball in pool, billiards, snooker, etc. ²

Verb, transitive:
Give a cue to or for ¹

• Act as a prompt or reminder
• [Sometimes followed by up] To search for and reach a specific track on a recording

[Usually followed by in or into] To insert, or direct to come in, in a specific place in a musical or dramatic performance

To twist or tie (the hair) into a cue ²

To strike with a cue

[Archaic] A braid of hair worn at the back

[Computing] A list of data items, commands, etc., stored so as to be retrievable in a definite order, usually the order of insertion ²

Verb, intransitive:
[Chiefly British] Take one’s place in a line ¹

[queue up] Be extremely keen to do or have something

[Often followed by up] To form in a line while waiting

[Computers] To arrange (data, jobs, messages, etc.) into a retrievable order ²

Verb, transitive:
[Often followed by up] To form in a line while waiting ¹

[Computing] Arrange in a retrievable order ²

[Computers] To arrange (data, jobs, messages, etc.) into a retrievable order

Any conversational lull was my cue for asking a question.

Bethany uses a specific number to cue up her memory as to what she is supposed to pick up.

Expectancy is communicated both by auditory and visual cues.

Of course, the pictures also provided additional cues for recall.

My teacher joked about such attitudes and I followed her cue.

The door opened right on cue.

McGee did not move, and Julia took her cue from him.

You could tell by his expression that he had missed a cue.

Who took the cue ball?

Clothing and decoration provide important cues to aid interpersonal and intrapersonal communication.

Mr. Glass asked his students, “Who knows a word that starts with cue but without the following you?”

Verb, intransitive:
“But I started cueing well, and Alan couldn’t put me away,” he said.

And the three times Regal Masters champion was soon cueing superbly.

“Stephen deserved to win it — he was cueing beautifully and produced his best form when it mattered,” said the six-times champion.

I am cueing well, but every now and then I make an unbelievable howler.

Verb, transitive:
Curious pedestrians are cued by the arrival of stretch limousines.

Marge will have a list of needs and questions on paper to cue you.

These features make it easier to cue up a tape for editing.

Full screen graphics can be cued in and cued up by using two buttons.

Since many of the program’s participants had never played a record, let alone cued one up, they began by first explaining how a record makes sound on a turntable and then showing them how to handle and cue it.

Will you cue me on my lines?

You’ll need to cue in a lighting effect.

Queues are a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) data structure.

Lao’s queue reached all the way down to his hips.

“A few years ago, I was standing in a queue behind two men and eavesdropping on their conversation” (Preston).

Look at the queue at the theatre!

Verb, intransitive:
During the war, they had to queue up for food.

Companies are queuing up to move to the bay.

There are three print jobs queued up ahead of mine.

Whoever queues up first in the queue is the first to be served.

When first setting up a database, it doesn’t really matter which fields are queued first, as they can be rearranged.

Verb, transitive:
Queue those files up to be printed.

The first file queued into the queue is the first element to be deleted or removed from the list.

We’ll have to hurry if we want to be the first to queue up in line.

1. Mid-16th century and of unknown origin.
2. 1725–35, from the French queue meaning tail, which is from the Old French coue, from the Latin cōda, which is from the earlier cauda meaning tail, essentially denoting a long plait or pigtail.
3. 1400–50, late Middle English cu, as a conventional adaptation in the spelling of the letter name.

1. Dates from the mid-19th century.
2. Late 16th century, as a heraldic term denoting the tail of an animal. It’s from the French and based on the Latin cauda meaning tail (see 2 at cue).