noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An excess of logs being conveyed on a river, so that their motion halts.
2. 2
   an immovable mass of logs blocking a river wordnet
3. 3
   A clog or such jam or mess that halts or greatly delays progress. figuratively

   "Efforts to amend the law got sidetracked in an administrative logjam."

4. 4
   any stoppage attributable to unusual activity wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   To deliberately impede or delay the progress of. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms

afterthoughtarch dambackstopbamboo curtainbankbar

Example

More examples

"Efforts to amend the law got sidetracked in an administrative logjam."

Etymology

From log + jam.

Related phrases

catch 22traffic jamvicious circle

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.