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Synonyms

queen bee

American  

noun

  1. a fertile female bee.

  2. a woman who is in a favored or preeminent position.

queen bee British  

noun

  1. the fertile female bee in a hive

  2. informal a woman in a position of dominance or ascendancy over her peers or associates

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

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

But the standout character is "queen bee" Regina, head of the Plastics clique and the meanest of the mean girls.

From BBC • Mar. 18, 2026

And Swift, with her lengthy track record of queen bee energy, can't be pleased with the implication that she's just the Drogon to someone else's Daenerys.

From Salon • Jun. 6, 2025

It wasn’t clear if the hive was simply following a queen bee that attached herself to the engine, he added.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 9, 2024

Mrs. Choi is the queen bee of Autumn’s well-off neighborhood, and her Southern twang is like her designer shoes—something she never forgets to put on before she leaves the house.

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer

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.