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bee

bee

351 1.0
A flying insect with a hairy body that collects nectar and pollen
  • noun
  • /biː/
: abeja
  • Our little friends, the bees.
  • honey bee
  • queen bee
  • bee colony

So they've taken these bees and now they release them.

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Examples

  • During spring, you can often see bees busy pollinating the blossoms in the garden.

  • This was the work of von Frisch, showing bee dancing, bee communication.

  • After dinner, I went out to see how the bee trap was working.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • But this is what the bees make for the queen bee.

  • Let Chad catch the bee in the glass.

  • The island is far enough from land that no other honey bees are present.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Oh, look at all the busy bees!

  • There's not a single bee in this entire box.

  • There are just honey bees everywhere on these blooms.

  • Throughout much of Nepal, several ethnic groups routinely harvest cliff bee nests for honey and wax.

    Academic text (1990)

Idioms

2 7.7

To say something that hurts someone suddenly and sharply

busy as a bee
  • Informal
1 3.4

Working very hard all the time

Compounds

35 2.9

A contest where people say the letters of words and are out if they make a mistake

18 1.0

A painful, swollen spot on the skin when a bee's sharp point goes into it

queen bee
  • Informal
13 5.8

A woman who is most influential in a social group

11 3.6

A female bee that cannot lay eggs and gathers food and cares for the hive

10 6.9

An aggressive bee from Brazil made by crossing African and European honeybees

busy bee
  • Informal
9 2.9

A person who always works hard and stays active

3 3.4

A fertile female bee in a hive that lays all the eggs

2 6.5

A meeting where people work together to sew warm blankets from small cloth pieces

Africanized bee
  • Specialized
2 8.0

A type of honeybee made by mixing African and European bees that is very aggressive and spreads fast

1 8.2

A brightly colored bird that catches and eats bees and other insects in flight

1 7.4

A garden herb with bright scented flowers that attract bees and butterflies

1 9.3

A large fly that looks like a bee and catches other insects in the air to drink their juices

1 9.8

A beetle in Europe that lives in beehives, damages honeycombs and disturbs bees

A large bee that lives alone and makes nests by drilling holes in wood

1 3.4

Looks, sounds, or moves like a bee

Africanized honey bee
  • Specialized
1 7.2

A honey bee bred from African and European bees that is very aggressive and spreads across the Americas

1 7.4

A dark honeybee from northern Europe that can be defensive around its hive

1 6.8

A bee that lives alone and builds nests from mud in holes

Italian bee
  • Specialized
1 5.4

A yellowish honeybee that is gentle and makes a lot of honey

1 8.7

A hairy fly that looks like a bee and whose young eat baby bees

1 2.7

A shed that holds many beehives

1 8.6

A solitary bee that nests in the ground and is seen in spring

German bee
  • Specialized
1 8.1

A dark, defensive honeybee bred in Germany for beekeeping

1 8.7

A small moth whose larvae eat wax and honeycomb in beehives

Carniolan bee
  • Specialized
1 7.0

A grey honeybee that makes a lot of honey and is gentle

killer bee
  • Jargon
1 9.9

A banker who helps a company avoid being taken over by another firm

A garden plant with pink or white flowers that attract bees

1 9.9

A European wild flower whose bloom looks like a bumblebee

A bee that cuts pieces from leaves to make its nest

8.9

A solitary bee from the western United States that pollinates alfalfa

A bee that cuts small pieces from leaves or flowers to build its nest

husking bee
  • Archaic
9.9

A community event where people gather to remove the outer leaves from corn and have fun

A bee that lives alone and builds mud nests on plants

How Social

honeybee
15 1.2
bee
351 1.0

Surface Forms

bee singular
bees plural

Etymology

Bee is a very old English word that has always named the busy, honey-making insect. You can see the same idea in everyday words like beehive and beeswax, which is why bee still means the flying insect that gathers nectar and makes 'honey'.