beehive
/ˈbiːhaɪv/
beehive noun: such a home prepared by the bees themselves, in which some species of honey bees live and raise their young. Also the alternative form of Beehive.
Noun (1)
beehive (plural beehives)
- Such a home prepared by the bees themselves, in which some species of honey bees live and raise their young.
- Synonyms:
- hive
- A man-made structure in which honey bees are kept so that humans can harvest their honey.
- The key-hole was still their port of egress and regress, and it resembled the aperture of a bee-hive, on a sunny day in June.1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 306
- Any place full of activity, or in which people are very busy.
- Synonyms:
- hive of activity
- A women's hairstyle, popular in the 1960s, in which long hair is styled into a hive-shaped form on top of the head and usually held in place with lacquer.
- Synonyms:
- B-52
- A particular style of hat.
- A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away,[…].1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
- A type of anti-personnel ammunition round containing flechettes, and characterised by the buzzing sound made as they fly through the air.
- By the time it was over, Stone had been blown thirty feet through the air by a beehive round as he was running across a field, knocked out by the concussion of the blast.2004, Martin Torgoff, “Next Stop is Vietnam”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 179
- In Conway's Game of Life, a particular still life pattern with a rounded appearance.
- By the way, what happens to a beehive which is under attack by one or two gliders such as pictured:1989 December 22, Norbert Roestel, “CA-LETTER”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
- Alternatively, in many cases the debris can be suppressed by perturbing the debris with a passing spaceship before it stabilizes into the beehive or loaf.1992 October 22, David Bell, “Spaceships in Conway's Life (Part 6a)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
- A diagram showing where balls have passed the batter, used in analysis.
Verb
beehive (third-person singular simple present beehives, present participle beehiving, simple past and past participle beehived)
- To fill (a place) with busy activity.
- Quite naturally, if there are more ministers swarming the cabinet rooms and conference halls, then there will be a spate of civil servants beehiving the secretariat.1958, T. S. Bawa, Jawaharlal Nehru, Nehru's India: An Analytical Study, page 25
- The patrons beehiving the place whooped and shouted.1989, Craig Foley, Blood Knot, page 59
- To style the hair in a hive-shaped or bouffant form.
Noun (2) capitalized: Beehive
Beehive (plural Beehives)
- A participant aged either twelve or thirteen years old in the Young Women organization of the LDS Church.
Proper noun capitalized: Beehive
the Beehive
- The executive wing of the New Zealand parliament buildings.
- New Zealand government.
Also used as
beehive is also the alternative form of Beehive.
beehive meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
beehive in Hindi
- home of bees
- छत्ता chattā, मधुमक्खी का छत्ता madhumakkhī kā chattā
beehive in Tamil
- home of bees
- தேன்கூடு tēṉkūṭu, தேனடை tēṉaṭai
- man-made structure in which bees are kept for their honey
- செயற்கை தேன்கூடு ceyaṟkai tēṉkūṭu
beehive in Marathi
- home of bees
- पोळे poḷe
beehive in Urdu
- home of bees
- چَھتَّہ chatta, چَھتَّا chattā
More languagesFewer languages
- beehive in Telugu
- తేనెగూడు tēnegūḍu
- beehive in Kannada
- ಜೇನುಗೂಡು jēnugūḍu, ಜೇನುಪೆಟ್ಟಿಗೆ jēnupeṭṭige
- beehive in Assamese
- মৌচাক mousak, চাক sak
- beehive in Tagalog
- panilan, bahay-pukyutan
- beehive in Arabic
- خَلِيَّة ḵaliyya, قَفِير qafīr, كُوَارَة kuwāra, جَبْح jabḥ
- beehive in Malay
- rumah lebah
- beehive in Thai
- รวงผึ้ง ruuang-pʉ̂ng
- beehive in Vietnamese
- tổ ong
- beehive in Myanmar
- ပျားအုံ pya:um
Examples of beehive in a sentence
- In beehives, most bees belong to the worker caste.
- Any time I go to the beehives to take care of the colonies, I wear protective gear.
- Nowhere was this more evident than when we moved four of her beehives to the outyard.
Synonyms of beehive
Forms of beehive
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | beehives |
| alternative form | bee-hive |
| plural | Beehives |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | beehives |
| present participle | beehiving |
| past participle | beehived |
| past | beehived |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form (nonstandard) | beehive |
Origin of beehive
From Middle English beehyve, equivalent to bee + hive.
From beehive.
Words formed from beehive
Phrases with beehive
Questions about beehive
- What does beehive mean?
- Beehive means such a home prepared by the bees themselves, in which some species of honey bees live and raise their young.
- What is beehive in Hindi?
- Beehive in Hindi is छत्ता (chattā), मधुमक्खी का छत्ता (madhumakkhī kā chattā). See Beehive meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is beehive?
- Beehive can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce beehive?
- Beehive is pronounced /ˈbiːhaɪv/.
- What is the plural of beehive?
- The plural of beehive is beehives.
Words near beehive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: beehive (page history and authors); Beehive (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-beehive.ogg.
Cite this entry: “beehive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beehive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.