Meanings
- colloquialdatedidiomaticpluralplural onlySomething or someone excellent, surpassingly wonderful, or cool.
We had strawberry shortcake for breakfast on Saturday and the kids thought it was the bee’s knees.
1 more example
I used to play in a band when I was younger. We had a few fans and we thought we were the bee’s knees.
Synonyms: cat's meow, cat's pyjamas, dog's bollocks, the bomb, all that and a bag of chips, antelope's cantaloupes, ant's pants, bee's knees
- pluralplural onlyUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bee, -'s, knee. Corbiculae.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSomething or someone excellent, surpassingly wonderful, or cool.
Origin
Attested since 1922, of unclear origin. There are several suggested origins, but it most likely arose in imitation of the numerous animal-related nonsense phrases popular in the 1920s such as the cat's pyjamas, cat's whiskers, cat's meow, gnat's elbow, monkey's eyebrows etc. A popular folk etymology has the phrase referring to the world champion dancer Bee Jackson. Another suggestion is that the phrase is a corruption of business. The singular bee's knee is attested from the late 18th century meaning something small or insignificant in the phrase big as a bee's knee. Also as weak as a bee's knee is attested in Ireland (1870). It is possible that the bee's knees is a deliberate inversion of this meaning but is not attested. Another possibility is that this is a reference to the (visible) blobs of pollen in bees' corbiculae.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 好極了 /好极了, 很棒
- 好極了 /好极了 (hǎo jíle)something excellent, outstanding
- 很棒 (hěn bàng)something excellent, outstanding
Dutch jé van hét, neusje van de zalm
- jé van hétsomething excellent, outstanding
- neusje van de zalmsomething excellent, outstanding
Finnish maailman paras juttu
- maailman paras juttusomething excellent, outstanding
French c'est le must, le nec plus ultra
- c'est le mustsomething excellent, outstanding
- le nec plus ultrasomething excellent, outstanding
German das Gelbe vom Ei
- das Gelbe vom Eisomething excellent, outstanding
Hungarian csúcs, legjobb
- csúcssomething excellent, outstanding
- legjobbsomething excellent, outstanding
- legklasszabbsomething excellent, outstanding
- legmenőbbsomething excellent, outstanding
Italian il meglio del meglio
- il meglio del megliosomething excellent, outstanding
Portuguese fora de série, do balacobaco
- fora de sériesomething excellent, outstanding
- do balacobacosomething excellent, outstanding
Russian отпад
- отпад (otpad)something excellent, outstanding
Spanish la mamá de Tarzán, lo más
- la mamá de Tarzánsomething excellent, outstanding
- lo mássomething excellent, outstanding
- la hostiasomething excellent, outstanding
- la lechesomething excellent, outstanding
- la pollasomething excellent, outstanding
- la reperasomething excellent, outstanding
- la netasomething excellent, outstanding
- las perlas de la virgensomething excellent, outstanding
- la repanochasomething excellent, outstanding
- la mondasomething excellent, outstanding
- de puta madresomething excellent, outstanding
Cite this entry
the bee's knees. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/the%20bee's%20knees
“the bee's knees.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/the%20bee's%20knees. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “the bee's knees,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/the%20bee's%20knees.
Source: the bee's knees on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.