apiary
Americannoun
-
apiaries
plural
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
The Secret Life of Bees
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"St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen Russell
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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.
See Examples For:
After her mother’s death, she began working with her father, Salvador, and her uncles at the family’s apiary, where they managed more than 30 hives.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Visit a local apiary or beekeeper to see how bees live and work.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 5, 2024
"We are so fortunate to be able to work with the Pennsylvania beekeepers, who every year answer a survey on their management practices, their bees' winter survival and their apiary locations," Grozinger said.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 4, 2024
The farm also has an apiary operation that produces incredible honey, two rescue steers, and a smattering of laying hens.
From Salon ● May 2, 2024
The well-informed beekeeper has learned that it is unwise and hazardous to feed under any circumstances honey in any form, even though it be from his own apiary.
From Soft Candy for Bees by Dr. Burton N. Gates
In apiaries, entire colonies can be wiped out by mite infestation and the associated viral infections within two to three years without proper human intervention.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2023
At the time of the first theft, he said he went to check on two of his apiaries and found the brood boxes, which contained the queens, were missing.
From BBC ● May 16, 2023
He spends most of his days tending eight apiaries around Los Angeles, but he doesn’t sell honey.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 14, 2021
The nonprofit works to help apiaries troubleshoot such problems, while also collecting data that can lead to solutions.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 20, 2019
They were also at work on fifty concrete apiaries for the protection of the bees.
From Hidden Treasure by John Thomas Simpson
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
