honeybee

play

noun hon·ey·bee \ˈhə-nē-ˌbē\

variants: or

honey bee

Definition of honeybee

: a honey-producing bee (genus Apis of the family Apidae); especially : a European bee (A. mellifera) introduced worldwide and kept in hives for the honey it produces

See honeybee defined for English-language learners

See honeybee defined for kids

Recent Examples of honeybee from the Web

Bee researcher Ramesh Sagili said Oregon's honeybee loss rate is normally much lower than the national average.

— olivia dimmer, OregonLive.com, "Amid nationwide bee decline, Portland Urban Beekeeping blooms," 11 July 2017
Pigeons, petrels, honeybees and possibly bears and mice use odor maps of their neighborhoods to return to den sites or nests.

— michael engelhard, Alaska Dispatch News, "An ode to Alaska odors," 1 July 2017
A few years back, domestic honeybee nests started experiencing mass die-offs, and problems were found in wild bees as well.

— john timmer, Ars Technica, "Study paints a confused picture of how insecticides are affecting bees," 30 June 2017
In Europe, bumblebees and honeybees can be purchased and used to pollinate flowering plants.

— dick crum, Indianapolis Star, "Dr. Dirt: Pansies fade away with summer weather," 30 June 2017
Zayed and his team showed that worker honeybees died around five days sooner when exposed to neonics.

— mira abed, latimes.com, "Field tests show how pesticides can wreak havoc on honeybees," 29 June 2017
But the logic all but falls apart every time one of those honeybees gets stung by the anachronistic expectation of female behavior that rules the Southern Charm hive.

— justine harman, Glamour, "How Southern Charm Accidentally Revealed Its Alarming Gender Problem," 26 June 2017
There's not much a home gardener can do to stem the loss of commercial honeybee hives.

— dan gill, NOLA.com, "How to attract butterflies, bees and other pollinators to your garden," 24 June 2017
Robb Fraley, the company’s chief technology office, ticked off the other RNAi products in the pipeline: a soybean that makes oil containing omega-3 and an insecticide that kills mites harming honeybees.

— sarah zhang, The Atlantic, "The EPA Quietly Approved Monsanto's New Genetic-Engineering Technology," 23 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'honeybee.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Illustration of honeybee

First Known Use of honeybee

15th century

HONEYBEE Defined for English Language Learners

honeybee

play

noun

Definition of honeybee for English Language Learners

: a bee that makes honey

HONEYBEE Defined for Kids

honeybee

play

noun hon·ey·bee \ˈhə-nē-ˌbē\

Definition of honeybee for Students

: a bee whose honey is used by people as food

Medical Dictionary

honeybee

play

noun hon·ey·bee \ˈhən-ē-ˌbē\

Medical Definition of honeybee

: a honey-producing bee (Apis and related genera); especially : a European bee (A. mellifera) introduced worldwide and kept in hives for the honey it produces