bee

CEFRA1

/ˈbiː/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    any of numerous hairy-bodied insects including social and solitary species.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A contest, especially for spelling; see spelling bee.

Examples

  • You are always as busy as a bee.

  • The bee alighted on the flower.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Any stinging flying insect, especially a wasp.

  2. A flying insect, of the clade Anthophila within the hymenopteran superfamily Apoidea, known for its organised societies (though only a minority have them), for collecting pollen and (in some species) producing wax and honey.

  3. A community gathering to share labour, e.g. a sewing bee or a quilting bee.

More examples

In context

  • geography bee

  • An angry Wasp th'one in a viall had, / Th'other in hers an hony-laden Bee.

  • His face was belymmed as byes had him stounge[…].

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

A yellow and black blank buzzed around the blooming lavender flowers.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English be, bee, beo, bey, from Old English bēo, bīo (“bee”), from Proto-West Germanic *bijā, from Proto-Germanic *bijǭ (“bee”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰey- (“bee”). Cognates Cognate with Yola been (“bees”), North Frisian bi (“bee”), West Frisian bij (“bee”), Dutch bij, by (“bee”), German Biene (“bee”), Limburgish Bé, bie (“bee”), Luxembourgish Bei (“bee”), Vilamovian byn (“bee”), West Flemish bieë (“bee”), Yiddish בין (bin, “bee”), Danish and Swedish bi (“bee”), Faroese býfluga (“bee”), Icelandic bý, býfluga (“bee”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk bie (“bee”); also Irish beach, meach (“bee”), Scottish Gaelic beach (“bee; beehive; wasp”), Latin fūcus (“bee”), Latvian...