hornet
Americannoun
noun
-
any of various large social wasps of the family Vespidae, esp Vespa crabro of Europe, that can inflict a severe sting
-
a strongly unfavourable reaction (often in the phrase stir up a hornet's nest )
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hornet
First recorded before 900; Middle English harnete, Old English hyrnet(u); cognate with Old High German hornaz (becoming German Horniss ); akin to horn
Explanation
A hornet is a flying, buzzing insect with a painful sting. Much larger than bees, hornets look very similar to yellow jackets. Etymologists suspect that hornet comes from an imitative root word (one that resembled a hornet's buzz) combined with horn, from the insect's horn-like stinger. This large wasp builds papery nests and lives in social groups like bees, with dominant queens. Hornets only sting if they're provoked — or if they think their nests are being threatened. Some people are dangerously allergic to their venom, and even without an allergy, you won't enjoy being stung by a hornet.
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:
So far this year, 205 Asian hornet queens have been caught and nine primary nests destroyed across Guernsey and Herm.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
The bee team fighting a murderous hornet invasion.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
As reported in the journal Ecosphere, Sugiura found clear evidence that adult pond frogs actively launched attacks on workers of all three hornet species.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 4, 2025
To investigate whether pond frogs evade or tolerate these potentially lethal stings, Sugiura presented individual adult frogs with workers of three hornet species, Vespa simillima, V. analis, and V. mandarinia, in controlled laboratory trials.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 4, 2025
“It makes me madder than a hornet to be disbelieved,” she explained.
From "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie
The hallways lead to more hallways, the overhead fluorescents whine like hornets.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
Asian hornets arrived in Jersey in 2016 and I&E said they are treated as an invasive species because they are aggressive predators of native insects and pose a threat to honey bees.
From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2026
Curiously, I never really got angry at the North Koreans, on the assumption that if you kick the hornet’s nest and get stung, you can’t really blame the hornets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026
Yet certain animals, including some birds, spiders, and frogs, regularly prey on adult hornets.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 4, 2025
I smacked and whacked the hornets that had taken a ride on me and just laid there until I could catch my breath.
From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis
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.
