Africanized bee

1 of 2

noun (1)

: a honeybee that originated in Brazil as an accidental hybrid between an aggressive African subspecies (Apis mellifera scutellata) and previously established European honeybees and has spread to Mexico and the southernmost U.S. by breeding with local bees producing populations retaining most of the African bee's traits

called also Africanized honeybee, killer bee

killer bee

2 of 2

noun (2)

: africanized bee

Examples of Africanized bee in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

What differentiates Africanized bees from Western honeybees is the number of bees a colony sends out to attack. — Jennifer Borresen, USA Today, 6 July 2025

By the early 1990s Africanized bees began showing up in the southern U.S. and have now been found in Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Invasive Species Information Center. — Marley Malenfant, Austin American Statesman, 22 May 2025

Bees in Southern California, originally from Europe, started crossbreeding with Africanized bees in the 1990s, said Orange County beekeeper Mike Henderson. — Sandra McDonald, Los Angeles Times, 14 Aug. 2024

Scientists typically refer to them as Africanized bees because the swarm was initiated by Apis mellifera scutellata, an African subspecies of the European honeybee imported to Brazil from South Africa and Tanzania in 1956 to introduce their heat tolerance genes. — Richard Pallardy, Ars Technica, 30 July 2024

Florida is considered an Africanized bee state. — Christine Sexton, sun-sentinel.com, 11 Aug. 2021

Noun

Nash evaded pirates, snipers and killer bees before heroically succumbing to a lethal virus in the April 17 ABC episode. — Bryan Alexander, USA Today, 26 Dec. 2025

Not to mention poison oak and killer bees and the potential for the hillside to give way and crush everything below it. — T. Coraghessan Boyle, New Yorker, 14 Sep. 2025

Alabama's discovery has followed a spate of killer bee sightings across the country. — July 2, CBS News, 2 July 2025

Were there other killer bee incidents in Texas this year? — Marley Malenfant, Austin American Statesman, 22 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

Noun (1)

1970, in the meaning defined above

Noun (2)

1976, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for Africanized bee

• actuality
• angiography
• laryngoscopy
• predominately
• sensuality
• stochastically
• abc
• absentee
• addressee
• adoptee
• allottee
• amphorae

Medical Definition

Africanized bee

noun

Af·​ri·​can·​ized bee ˌaf-ri-kə-ˌnīzd- 

: a honeybee that originated in Brazil as an accidental hybrid between an aggressive African subspecies (Apis mellifera scutellata) and previously established European honeybees and has spread to Mexico and the southernmost United States by breeding with local bees producing populations retaining most of the African bee's traits

called also Africanized honeybee, killer bee