bumblebee
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of bumblebee
Explanation
A bumblebee is a large, flying insect that pollenates flowers. Bumblebees are fatter and fuzzier than honeybees. They may look cute, but they can still sting you. A bumblebee is a completely different species than a honeybee, though it does make honey. Bumblebees produce honey in much smaller quantities, and it isn't harvested and eaten by people. Bumblebees also live in smaller groups, of up to four hundred bees, compared to honeybees' hives that have as many as 60,000 bees. In some places, they're called humblebees, from the Middle English humbul-be, which echoes the "hum" of a bee.
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.
It also recorded bumblebee visits to investigate the impacts of heatwaves on foraging behaviour.
From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026
“If you were a bumblebee, a moth, or a short-tongued solitary bee, how might you approach this bloom?”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026
"We document a substantial shift in the functional composition of bumblebee communities that is tied to a long-term increase of summer temperatures in North America," the authors write.
From Salon • Aug. 20, 2024
"Unfortunately, we're looking at a future scenario where about one in five bumblebee species in the United States could be endangered," Mola continued.
From Science Daily • Apr. 4, 2024
Rowdy wouldn’t have turned loose of a bumblebee any faster than he did that monkey.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
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.
