honeybee

H4O1N1E1Y4B3E1E1

A form of honey bee — Any of many subspecies of bee, in seven species of genus Apis, often kept commercially for honey, beeswax, and pollination of crops.

Similar
Apis mellifera
UncommonScrabble 16

Meanings

nounhoneybee (plural honeybees)

plural honeybees

  1. alternativeAlternative form of honey bee.

    In his new animated film, Jerry Seinfeld plays Barry B. Benson, a wisecracking, moony-eyed, charmingly petulant New York honeybee who doesn't want to spend his days as a worker bee stuck on the honeymaking assembly line.

    2007 November 13, Natalie Angier, “In Hollywood Hives, the Males Rule”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 17 May 2021
    1 more example

    The bees’ cubital index, a method for differentiating breeds of honeybees, also confirmed they are “more of an indigenous bee” than anything else, he said, but their adaptations have made them unique and peculiar, and they have very little banding. “Supposedly, wild tree-nesting honeybees which can sustain themselves do not exist, so nobody knows what type of wild, self-sustaining honeybee is actually left in the UK.”

    2021 November 7, Donna Ferguson, “‘No one knew they existed’: wild heirs of lost British honeybee found at Blenheim”, in The Guardian Online, archived from the original on 28 Apr 2022

Synonyms & antonyms

nounsocial bee often domesticated for the honey it produces

Similar
Apis mellifera
Broader

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Englishhoney
  2. Proto-Indo-European*bʰey-
  3. Proto-Germanic*bijǭ
  4. Proto-West Germanic*bijā
  5. Old Englishbēo
  6. Middle Englishbe
  7. Englishbee
  8. Englishhoneybee

From honey + bee.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

honeybee. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/honeybee

MLA

“honeybee.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/honeybee. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “honeybee,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/honeybee.

Source: honeybee on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.