apiary
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of apiary
1645–55; < Latin apiārium beehive, equivalent to api ( s ) bee + -ārium -ary
Explanation
An apiary is a structure for keeping bees. If you love to eat fresh honey and don't have access to a farmer's market, you might consider building an apiary in your backyard. Apiaries have nothing to do with apes! Rather, the word derives from apis, the Latin word for "bee." Humans have raised bees for their honey for thousands of years; the oldest known apiaries were built by ancient Egyptians. The word itself didn't appear until the 1650s, around the time that apiarists, or beekeepers, started constructing apiaries resembling the ones in current use. Today, there are apiaries of various sizes on every continent and in every U.S. state.
Vocabulary lists containing apiary
"St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen Russell
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The Secret Life of Bees
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This Week In Culture, September 7–13, 2019
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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.
Black Barn Apiary Luxe Gold Honey This isn’t your average jar of honey—it’s glittering, golden magic.
From Salon • Apr. 18, 2025
But contributing to the waste stream doesn’t sit well with the Apiary team.
From Seattle Times • May 15, 2024
The phrase “there is no away” has become a tenet guiding Apiary Studio, a Philadelphia landscape firm founded in 2015 by Keen’s partner, Hans Hesselein, a landscape architect.
From Seattle Times • May 15, 2024
Pantin, a donkey living at a farm outside Toulouse, France, known as the Donkey’s Apiary.
From New York Times • Mar. 14, 2023
If an Apiary is approached when the bees are out in great numbers, thousands and tens of thousands will continue their busy pursuits without at all interfering with those who do not molest them.
From Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee A Bee Keeper's Manual by Langstroth, L. L. (Lorenzo Lorraine)
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.
