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.
Elizabeth Debicki plays the queen bee, a bully born into high status as the doctor’s daughter, whose icy lavender gowns contrast crisply against Colman’s hand-knitted rags.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
"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
"It was a real cluster of bees, and probably there was a queen bee right in the middle," the urban beekeeper told France Info.
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 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
The actual work was done by the servants, of course, but the queen bee of all this busyness was indisputably Lady Constance.
From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
