beekeeper
Americannoun
-
beekeepers
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of beekeeper
Explanation
A beekeeper is someone who manages bee hives and extracts honey. If you see a person wearing a white jumpsuit and a hat with a veil — and they're covered in buzzing insects — it's probably a beekeeper. If you want to get really fancy, you can call a beekeeper an apiarist. Beekeepers manage apiaries, or networks of honey bee hives. They care for the hives, making sure they are an ideal environment for the bees to live and make honey. It's also the beekeeper's job to carefully extract honeycomb without harming the bees. Many people keep bees as a hobby, yielding just a little bit of honey each year.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Someday she hopes to set up a free seed library, and she’s excited to see bluebird hatchlings in the bluebird house that Venice beekeeper Ian Kimbrey installed in her tree.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
A Riverside County beekeeper lost millions of bees in last week’s Verona fire and warns that the effects of the devastation will be widespread.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
There are even bees and a beekeeper, who harvests honey for employees to take home.
From Barron's ● Nov. 15, 2025
Mr Grzymek advises the public not to use traps unless you're advised to do so as a beekeeper.
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2025
A writer, an English teacher, and a beekeeper.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
Two hives were initially installed and staff were recruited to train as beekeepers.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
In a lot behind a disused West Virginia gas station at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains, Roy Funkhouser is surrounded by about a dozen beekeepers and countless buzzing bees.
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
"This question did not start in the lab. It started in conversations with beekeepers," Baer said.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 20, 2026
By 1947 commercial beekeepers were moving their hives miles away; smog was killing the bees, or making them crazy so they couldn’t find their way back home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2026
“A long time ago beekeepers always covered their hives when someone in their family died,” said August.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
