hornet
Americannoun
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hornets
plural
noun
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any of various large social wasps of the family Vespidae, esp Vespa crabro of Europe, that can inflict a severe sting
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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:
The bee team fighting a murderous hornet invasion.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
This suggests that the frogs in the study may have developed a dual resistance to both the painful and harmful effects of hornet venom, allowing them to successfully hunt and consume hornet workers.
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
All of those within the hive need fed and the Asian hornet can eat up to 50 honey bees a day.
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2025
When your mama learned he’d won it in a poker match, she was angry as a hornet.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
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
A frog with an unexpectedly strong resistance to venom has been identified, and it routinely eats hornets despite the insects' dangerous stingers.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 4, 2025
The crowd chants down the last seconds like it’s New Year’s Eve, then explode from the stands like angry hornets at the sound of the buzzer.
From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson
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.
