bumblebee

noun

bum·​ble·​bee ˈbəm-bəl-ˌbē How to pronounce bumblebee (audio)
variants or less commonly bumble bee
: any of numerous large robust hairy social bees (genus Bombus)

Examples of bumblebee in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Share [Findings] An extinction-risk model was found to work well for bumblebees. Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's Magazine, 8 Nov. 2023 Honeybees are known to take resources from and carry diseases that can infect native bees, such as the rusty patched or common eastern bumblebees, suppressing their populations. Rebecca Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 6 Sep. 2023 Butterflies and other pollinators flutter above the tall grass, and the bumblebees from her apiary hover among stalks of chamomile and milkweed. Alice Newell-Hanson, New York Times, 21 Sep. 2023 Make sure to also click that little bumblebee icon next to my thing, by the way. Django Gold, The New Yorker, 27 Sep. 2023 Half a century later, Tallamy is alarmed by the loss of insect abundance and diversity on nearly every continent, from butterflies and bumblebees to tiger beetles and aquatic insects such as stone flies. Emily Underwood, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Sep. 2023 For example, when fat bumblebees were trained to fly and then walk through a slit in a board to get to food on the other side, the bees turned their bodies sideways and tucked in their legs. Stephen Buchmann, The Conversation, 17 May 2023 Being small isn’t always easy for the bumblebee bat, whose populations are suffering from disruptions caused by fertilizer collection, mining and tourism. Anna Nordseth, Discover Magazine, 1 Aug. 2023 During the first half of that, my attention went mainly to large, visible creatures like bears, crocodiles and bumblebees and to wild places like the Amazon jungle and the Sonoran Desert. David Quammen, New York Times, 25 July 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bumblebee.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1530, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of bumblebee was in 1530

Dictionary Entries Near bumblebee

Cite this Entry

“Bumblebee.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bumblebee. Accessed 2 Dec. 2023.

Kids Definition

bumblebee

noun
bum·​ble·​bee ˈbəm-bəl-ˌbē How to pronounce bumblebee (audio)
: any of numerous large hairy social bees

More from Merriam-Webster on bumblebee

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