Word.ws English Dictionary

bee

/ˈbiː/

bee noun: 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. Also the obsolete spelling of be.

bee: a flying insect, of the clade Anthophila within the hymenopteran superfamily Apoidea, known for its...
Image: Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

bee (plural bees or (dialectal) been)

  1. 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.
    • His face was belymmed as byes had him stounge[…].1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte
    • An angry Wasp th'one in a viall had, / Th'other in hers an hony-laden Bee.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  2. (informal, proscribed) Any stinging flying insect, especially a wasp.

Noun (2)

bee (plural bees)

  1. A contest, especially for spelling; see spelling bee.
    • geography bee
    • Hey, guys. Whoa. What are you guys doing? They're setting up in the gym for the Vision Bee. I signed our team up as "Sumo and the Laser Twins."2014 July 24, Spencer Rothbell, “Puddle Eyes” (7:02 from the start), in Clarence, season 1, episode 14, spoken by Sumo (Tom Kenny), Cartoon Network Studios
  2. A community gathering to share labour, e.g. a sewing bee or a quilting bee.
    • The cellar […] was dug by a bee in a single day.1856, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, Recollections of a Lifetime
    • There was but little variation in types of buildings in the pioneer period: house, church, store, barn and mill were usually much alike except in size, and a raising bee was the ordinary means of their erection.1973, Alan Skeoch, Tony H. Smith, Canadians and their society, page 139

Noun (3)

bee (plural bees)

  1. (obsolete) A ring or torque; a bracelet.
    • And kyng Arthur gaf her a ryche bee of gold and soo she departed1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Caxton, Book 7, Chapter xxxv
    • ...restoring unto the world much gold richly adorning his Sword, two hundred Rubies, many hundred Imperial Coynes, three hundred golden Bees, the bones and horseshoe of his horse enterred with him...1658, Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial, Penguin, published 2005, page 16

Noun (4)

bee (plural bees)

  1. The name of the Latin script letter B/b.
    • "The ee-vee-ee-ar-en-oh-ee-ell-blank-bee-ell-oh-ess-ess-oh-em-blank-en-ee-cee-tee-ay-ar is especially dee-ee-ell-eye-cee-eye-oh-you-ess." Our friends thanked the spelling bee for his help and then he buzzed off.2004, Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, page 170

Noun (5)

bee (plural bees)

  1. (plural-normally) Any of the pieces of hard wood bolted to the sides of the bowsprit, to reeve the fore-topmast stays through.
    Synonyms:
    bee block

Noun (6) capitalized: Bee

Bee (plural Bees)

  1. someone connected with Barnet Football Club, as a fan, player, coach etc.
  2. Alternative letter-case form of bee.

Proper noun capitalized: Bee

Bee

  1. A diminutive of the female given name Beatrice.
  2. A surname.

Noun (7) capitalized: BEE

BEE (uncountable)

  1. (South Africa, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Black Economic Empowerment.

Also used as

bee is also the obsolete spelling of be.

bee is also the past participle of be.

bee meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

bee in Hindi

insect
मधुमक्खी madhumakkhī
name of the letter B, b
बी bī

bee in Tamil

insect
தேனீ tēṉī
name of the letter B, b
பீ pī

bee in Marathi

insect
मधमाशी madhmāśī, मधुकर madhukar
name of the letter B, b
बी bī

bee in Urdu

insect
شَہْد کی مَکھّی śahd kī makhhī, مَدھ مَکھّی madh makhhī
More languagesFewer languages
bee in Bengali
মৌমাছি mōumachi, বি bi
bee in Telugu
తేనెటీగ tēneṭīga
bee in Malayalam
ഇണ്ട iṇṭa, ഘണ്ഡം ghaṇḍaṁ, ഭസനം bhasanaṁ
bee in Kannada
ದುಂಬಿ dumbi
bee in Punjabi
ਮਧੁ ਮਕ੍ਖੀ madhu makkhī
bee in Gujarati
મધમાખી madhmākhī
bee in Odia
ମହୁମାଛି mahumāchi
bee in Sanskrit
भ्रमर bhramara, मधुलिह् madhulih
bee in Sinhala
මීමැස්සා mīmæssā
bee in Assamese
মৌমাখি moumakhi, মধুকৰ modhukor
bee in Nepali
मौरी maurī
bee in Pashto
مچئِي mača'i, بلۍ مچۍ balǝ́ymǝčǝ́y, غلاوزه ǧlāwáza
bee in Tagalog
bubuyog, pukyot
bee in Arabic
نَحْلَة naḥla, نَحْل naḥl, نحل naḥl, نحلة naḥla
bee in Malay
lebah, tawon, bi
bee in Indonesian
lebah, tawon
bee in Persian
زَنْبور zanbur, زَنْبورِ عَسَل zanbur-e asal, مُنْج monj, گَبْت gabt
bee in Thai
ผึ้ง pʉ̂ng, ภมร pá-mɔɔn, ภุมรี pum-má-rii, บี bee
bee in Vietnamese
ong, bê, bờ
bee in Myanmar
ပျား pya:, ဘီ bhi
Sindhi
مک maki
Kashmiri
تُلٕر tulụr

Examples of bee in a sentence

  • Can there be a more formall, and better ordered policie, divided into so severall charges and offices, more constantly entertained, and better maintained, than that of Bees?1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount...
  • Bees are the moſt excellent of all Inſects vvhatſoever, and expreſſe both vvorth and vvonder in all their vvaies: […]1657, Samuel Purchas, “The Excellency of Bees”, in A Theatre of Politicall Flying-Insects. […], London: […] R. I. for Thomas Parkhurst...
  • He stood across in the other garden, beside a bush of pale Michaelmas daisies, watching the last bees crawl into the hive.1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “chapter 12”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
  • Bees pollinate many of the world’s crops—a service estimated to be worth $15 billion a year in America alone.2012 March 31, “Subtle poison”, in The Economist:

All 40 example sentences with bee

Synonyms of bee

Forms of bee

pluralbees
pluralBees
plural (dialectal)been

Plural of bee: bees

Origin of bee

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 bite (“bee”), Lithuanian bitė (“bee”), Belarusian пчала́ (pčalá, “bee”), Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian пчела́ (pčelá, “bee”), Czech včála, včela (“bee”), Polish pszczoła (“bee”), Serbo-Croatian пчѐла, bčela, pčèla (“bee”), Slovak včela (“bee”), Slovene čebela (“bee”), Ukrainian бджола́ (bdžolá, “bee”), Ossetian биндзӕ (binʒæ), бындз (bynʒ, “fly”), Pashto وينه (waynë́, wenë́, wuynë́, “termite; white ant”).

Possibly from dialectal bene, been, bean (“help given by neighbours”), from Middle English been, bene (“neighbourly help, prayer, petition, request, extra service given by a tenant to his lord”), from Old English bēn (“prayer, request, petition, favour, compulsory service”), from Proto-West Germanic *bōni, from Proto-Germanic *bōniz (“prayer, request, supplication”). Thus a variant of obsolete ben (“prayer; petition”) and doublet of boon. Cognate with Danish bøn (“prayer”), Dutch ban (“curse”), German Bann (“ban”). More at ban.

From Middle English bie, from Old English bēah, bēag, from Proto-West Germanic *baug, from Proto-Germanic *baugaz. Doublet of beag, a learned borrowing; and of bagel.

Words formed from bee

Phrases with bee

101 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with bee

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bee

What does bee mean?
Bee means 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.
What is bee in Hindi?
Bee in Hindi is मधुमक्खी (madhumakkhī), बी (bī). See Bee meaning in Hindi.
How do you use bee in a sentence?
Can there be a more formall, and better ordered policie, divided into so severall charges and offices, more constantly entertained, and better maintained, than that of Bees?
What part of speech is bee?
Bee can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce bee?
Bee is pronounced /ˈbiː/.
What is the plural of bee?
The plural of bee is bees.

Words near bee in the dictionary

  1. bedyed
  2. bedyeing
  3. bedyes
  4. bedying
  5. Bedzin
  6. bee
  7. bee assassin
  8. bee assassins
  9. bee ball
  10. bee balls
  11. bee balm

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bee (page history and authors); Bee (page history and authors); BEE (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bee.ogg, En-uk-a bee.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bee.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bee. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.