honey
Americannoun
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honeys
plural
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a sweet, viscid fluid produced by bees from the nectar collected from flowers, and stored in nests or hives as food.
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this substance as used in cooking or as a spread or sweetener.
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the nectar of flowers.
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any of various similarly sweet, viscid products produced by insects or in other ways.
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something sweet, delicious, or delightful.
the honey of flattery.
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Informal. a person for whom one feels love or deep affection; sweetheart; darling.
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(sometimes initial capital letter) an affectionate or familiar term of address, as to a child or romantic partner (sometimes offensive when used to strangers, casual acquaintances, subordinates, etc., especially by a male to a female).
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Informal. something of especially high quality, degree of excellence, etc..
That's a honey of a computer.
adjective
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of, like, or pertaining to honey; sweet.
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containing honey or flavored or sweetened with honey.
verb (used with object)
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Informal. to talk flatteringly or endearingly to (often followed byup ).
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to sweeten or flavor with or as if with honey.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a sweet viscid substance made by bees from nectar and stored in their nests or hives as food. It is spread on bread or used as a sweetening agent
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any similar sweet substance, esp the nectar of flowers
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anything that is sweet or delightful
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(often capital) a term of endearment
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informal something considered to be very good of its kind
a honey of a car
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(modifier) of, concerned with, or resembling honey
verb
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(tr) to sweeten with or as if with honey
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(often foll by up) to talk to (someone) in a fond or flattering way
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of honey
before 900; Middle English hony, Old English hunig; cognate with Dutch, German honig, Old Norse hunang; akin to Greek knēkós pale yellow, tawny
Explanation
Honey is the sweet, sticky substance that bees make from flower nectar. Most people like to put a little honey in their tea, but Winnie the Pooh likes to hoard it in a big pot. Honey comes in various consistencies — from almost solid, in honeycomb, to drippy and liquid. Bees produce honey and store it for food, and humans often take advantage of this, harvesting the honey for themselves. Honey is also a color, the golden shade of most honey, and a verb, meaning "to add honey," or "to make sweet." Since the 14th century, people have also called each other honey as an affectionate nickname.
Vocabulary lists containing honey
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:
This version simmers ripe peaches with honey and whole black peppercorns until the fruit collapses and the syrup turns fragrant, floral and just a little prickly.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
All ants are eusocial, along with honey bees and some wasps.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
Whole Foods began selling Hot Girl Pickles in September 2025; they come in garlic cumin and honey harissa flavors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
However, the young woman soon learns that the world of honey isn't as sweet as it seems.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
As they drank hot milk and honey from white enamel mugs for breakfast, they passed close to a tiny village.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
Vermont-based Runamok has a serious selection of honeys to play with: Try those infused with hibiscus flower, Arbol chiles or lemon verbena, to name a few.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 18, 2023
For breakfast, he requires a selection of six honeys and a special mix of muesli, and to end a meal, a plate of local cheese.
From Seattle Times ● May 8, 2023
Vendors are hawking flower crowns, drinking horns, herbal tea blends and artisanal wildflower honeys while the pop-up taverns declaring “COLD DRYNKS” attend to parched wayfarers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2022
The raw honeys, including a slightly citric sourwood and a very floral tulip poplar, are $12 to $16 for 12 to 16 ounces.
From New York Times ● Jul. 26, 2021
"Run back in the house now, honeys," the mother said.
From The Man in Gray by Thomas Dixon
On a recent evening, from a seat at the restaurant’s fluted blonde-wood bar, I watched as a blaze of honeyed light poured through a wall of windows overlooking sloping vineyards and the Appalachian foothills.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
She explained that she and her siblings would deliberately choose long bedtime stories to spend more time listening to their father read aloud, describing his voice as "honeyed".
From BBC ● May 29, 2026
“Howling” — the fierce yet honeyed lead track on “Awe” — saw the group transformed into a futuristic wolf pack.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2026
Think: lentils and sun-dried tomatoes folded into dough, or blueberry-stuffed pierogi served with honeyed sour cream.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2025
I closed my eyes and thought of Rosa: her perfect face, her milky skin, her mermaid hair, her honeyed eyes that caused such havoc, her hands clasping the mother- of-pearl rosary, her nuptial flower crown.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
Russian Journey is his most interesting book to date and offers a penetrating glimpse of the enigmatic bear which is currently bent on retracting its claws and honeying up the world.
From Time Magazine Archive
I’d always felt that way, too, till he come honeying round me this spring.
From Captain Pott's Minister by Francis L. (Francis Le Roy) Cooper
So she set briskly about her task, honeying Eugene the while, for she was confident that this above all things was the thing he needed.
From The "Genius" by Theodore Dreiser
Ay, but the young colt winced and whinnied and flung up her heels; and then the King came honeying about her, and this Becket, her father's friend, like enough staved us from her.
From Becket and other plays by Alfred Tennyson, Baron Tennyson
But honeying at the whisper of a lord: And one the Master, as a rogue in grain, Veneer'd with sanctimonious theory.'
From Aspects of Modern Oxford by A. D. (Alfred Denis) Godley
Within hours Columbia Artists' Vice-President William Judd was on the transatlantic phone with honied words.
From Time Magazine Archive
And I, listening, Found not the salt of the whispers of my girl, Murmur of confused colors, as we lay near sleep; Little wise words and little witty words, Wanton as water, honied with eagerness.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
Each bee is drunken with the honied air: And all the air is eloquent with blue.
From Kentucky Poems by Madison J. Cawein
Thus the waters gave birth to the first insects, and their earliest families were not of those which suck honied juices or the blood of animals, or which pass through a worm-like infancy.
From The Chain of Life in Geological Time A Sketch of the Origin and Succession of Animals and Plants by Sir J. William Dawson
I cannot count the friends that broke Their faith, tho' honied words they spoke; In whom no aid I found, and made The Devil welcome to their aid.
From A Literary History of the Arabs by Reynold Nicholson
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.
