Streamline

How to spell streamline

10 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce streamline

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does streamline mean?

1. verbTo make a process, system, or organisation simpler and more efficient by removing unnecessary steps.

Streamline in a sentence

• The new software should streamline our monthly invoicing.

• Management hopes to streamline the approval process and cut waiting times.

Where does streamline come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound, joining 'stream' to 'line'. 'Stream' descends from the Old English 'stream', meaning a flowing body of water, and shares roots with related Germanic words across Dutch and German. 'Line' came into English from the Latin 'linea', a string or thread made of flax ('linum'). The combined word first appeared in the late nineteenth century as a technical term in fluid dynamics, where a 'streamline' was the smooth path traced by a particle moving through flowing fluid. From describing such low-resistance shapes, the word grew a figurative verb sense in the early twentieth century, meaning to make a process simpler and more efficient by removing whatever causes drag or delay. Because both halves are common everyday words, the spelling is rarely a problem once you remember it is written solid, with no hyphen.

How the word is built

• stream (a flowing body of water)
• line (a continuous mark or path)