honeybee

American  

[huhn-ee-bee] / ˈhʌn iˌbi /

Or honey bee

noun

honeybees plural

1. any bee that collects and stores honey, especially Apis mellifera.

---

honeybee British  

/ ˈhʌnɪˌbiː /

noun

1. Also called: hive bee.  any of various social honey-producing bees of the genus Apis, esp A. mellifera, which has been widely domesticated as a source of honey and beeswax

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• honeybees
  plural

Etymology

Origin of honeybee

First recorded in 1560–70; honey + bee ¹

Explanation

Honeybees are the winged insects that beekeepers like best, because they naturally produce extra honey and can be raised to produce the sweet, sticky stuff. Honeybees, as their name implies, make a lot of honey, storing surplus amounts in their waxy hives. Humans have domesticated two species of honeybee, raising them for the extra honey they produce. You can tell the difference between a bumblebee, which is native to North America, and a honeybee, native to Africa, Asia, and Europe, by comparing their bodies. Honeybees are slim, with a distinct head, while bumblebees are fat and fuzzy.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

honeybee honeybees

They compared honeybee and bumblebee colonies located side by side in Cambridgeshire, England, where soil contamination is generally considered low.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 7, 2026

According to the researchers, that is comparable to more than 200 honeybee hives and exceeds Manhattan's human population by more than threefold.

From Science Daily ● May 28, 2026

At one point he compared himself to a honeybee.

From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2026

In midsentence, she’d suddenly break off to excitedly note a young kestrel flying near the crossing or a honeybee foraging among some early flowers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2026

She waved a honeybee away from her face.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns

They first appeared in Guernsey in 2017 and the States said the non-native, invasive species poses a major threat to the island's biodiversity and honeybees, which make up 39% of its diet on average.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

Research has found acetamiprid can poison honeybees, affecting their foraging capacity and memory, while a 2024 study suggested flupyradifurone could be lethal to some bees.

From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026

Pollen collected by bumblebees contained between two and seven times more heavy metals than pollen collected by honeybees across most of the metals examined.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 7, 2026

Although farmers in Riverside County should be able to turn to other companies to rent their honeybees for pollination needs, Teller anticipates downstream effects for bee removal customers.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026

And now, all the questions and worries were aggravated honeybees in her mind.

From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton