Phalanx vs. Queue — What's the Difference?

The phalanx (Ancient Greek: φάλαγξ; plural phalanxes or phalanges, φάλαγγες, phalanges) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar pole weapons. The term is particularly used to describe the use of this formation in Ancient Greek warfare, although the ancient Greek writers used it to also describe any massed infantry formation, regardless of its equipment.

A line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed.

A compact or close-knit body of people

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

A formation of infantry carrying overlapping shields and long spears, developed by Philip II of Macedon and used by Alexander the Great.

A plait of hair worn at the back.

Pl. phalanges Anatomy A bone of a finger or toe. Also called phalange.

Take one's place in a queue

See phalanstery.

Arrange in a queue

An ancient Greek and Macedonian military unit that consisted of several ranks and files (lines) of soldiers in close array with joined shields and long spears.

A line of waiting people or vehicles.

(historical sociology) A Fourierite utopian community; a phalanstery.

A sequence of stored data or programs awaiting processing.

(plural phalanxes) A large group of people, animals or things, compact or closely massed, or tightly knit and united in common purpose.

A data structure from which the first item that can be retrieved is the one stored earliest.

One of the bones of the finger or toe.

A long braid of hair worn hanging down the back of the neck; a pigtail.

A body of heavy-armed infantry formed in ranks and files close and deep. There were several different arrangements, the phalanx varying in depth from four to twenty-five or more ranks of men.

To get in line

Any body of troops or men formed in close array, or any combination of people distinguished for firmness and solidity of a union.

To place in a sequence

A Fourierite community; a phalanstery.

To braid or twist (hair) into a queue.

One of the digital bones of the hand or foot, beyond the metacarpus or metatarsus; an internode.

A line of people, vehicles or other objects, in which 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).

A group or bundle of stamens, as in polyadelphous flowers.

A waiting list or other means of organizing people or objects into a first-come-first-served order.

Any of the bones (or phalanges) of the fingers or toes

(computing) 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.

Any closely ranked crowd of people

(heraldry) An animal's tail.

A body of troops in close array

A men's hairstyle with a braid or ponytail at the back of the head, such as that worn by men in Imperial China.

(intransitive) To put oneself or itself at the end of a waiting line.

(intransitive) To arrange themselves into a physical waiting queue.

To add to a queue data structure.

To fasten the hair into a queue.

A tail-like appendage of hair; a pigtail.

To fasten, as hair, in a queue.

A line of people or vehicles waiting for something

(information processing) an ordered list of tasks to be performed or messages to be transmitted

A braid of hair at the back of the head

Form a queue, form a line, stand in line;