honeybee

American  

[huhn-ee-bee] / ˈhʌn iˌbi /

Or honey bee

noun

• honeybees
  plural

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

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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

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• honeybees
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of honeybee

First recorded in 1560–70; honey + bee ¹

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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

The results suggest that combining pollen from different plants and then processing it through nurse bees may allow honeybee colonies to compensate for the nutritional shortcomings of individual pollen sources.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

For many years, scientists believed the recipe for creating a queen honeybee was straightforward: give a developing larva plenty of royal jelly, and it becomes the colony's ruler.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 23, 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

Beekeepers across the country reported losing as much as 62% of their managed honeybee colonies in 2025, raising serious concerns about food production.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 20, 2026

She waved a honeybee away from her face.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns

But the main prey of the Asian hornet is honeybees, with one insect killing up to 50 bees a day, devastating entire colonies.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

Glyphosate exposure is not usually fatal to honeybees, but the researchers suspected it might still cause less obvious problems.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026

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

It feels like honeybees begin to swarm around in my gut as I realize it’s time.

From "King and the Dragonflies" by Kacen Callender

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