Lineup

How to spell lineup

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lineup

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lineup mean?

1. nounA set of people or things assembled or scheduled in a particular order, such as a team, cast, or programme.
2. nounA row of people shown to a witness so that a suspect may be identified.

Lineup in a sentence

• The festival announced its full lineup of bands this morning.

• The witness picked the driver out of a police lineup.

• The manager named a strong lineup for the cup final.

• Detectives arranged a lineup of six men at the station.

Where does lineup come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a modern compound noun formed in English from the everyday words 'line' and 'up'. The first part, 'line', traces back to the Latin linea, which meant a linen thread or a string, and by extension the straight mark a stretched cord makes; it reached English partly through Old English and partly through Old French. The particle 'up' is a native Germanic word from Old English. The verb phrase 'to line up', meaning to form a row or queue, came into use in the nineteenth century, and from roughly the early twentieth century writers began running the two words together as a single noun for an arrangement of people or things, especially a row of suspects shown to a witness or the set of players a team fields. The persistent spelling trap is purely modern: deciding when the verb phrase 'line up' (two words) becomes the noun 'lineup' (one word).

How the word is built

• line (a row or queue)
• up (adverb particle, fixed into a single compound noun)