queen bee
Americannoun
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queen bees
plural
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a fertile female bee.
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a woman who is in a favored or preeminent position.
noun
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the fertile female bee in a hive
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informal a woman in a position of dominance or ascendancy over her peers or associates
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of queen bee
First recorded in 1600–10
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.
"When pesticides accumulate to the extent that the queen bee has eggs that are so loaded they may no longer develop properly, there could be a tipping point," Nicklisch said.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
In “The Rivals of Amziah King,” the moment with the queen bee is when the film transitions from its wild, wacky — but intentional — world-building into a sleek Southern noir.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
"This keeps the whole group tight together. It's like Guardiola is the queen bee at Manchester City and has got the right pheromones going through his hive at the moment."
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026
Now we’re on Vegas World; now we’re on Jurassic Planet; now we’re on a planet ruled by a gigantic queen bee.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
I thought that perhaps I had come upon the forest equivalent of a queen bee, and I wondered whether this algae would ever cease to amaze me with its botanical strangeness.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
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.
