honey
Syllables: hon·ey/ˈhʌni/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/ˈhʊni/
honey noun: a sweet, viscous, gold-colored fluid produced from plant nectar by bees, and often consumed by humans.
Noun
honey (usually uncountable, plural honeys or (archaic) honies)
- A sweet, viscous, gold-colored fluid produced from plant nectar by bees, and often consumed by humans.
- The honey in the pot should last for years.
- Synonyms:
- mel
- A variety of this substance.
- The physical properties of the different honeys, color, granulation, aroma, flavor, etc., are indicated in the table only in a very general way.1908, United States. Bureau of Chemistry, Bulletin, numbers 110-114
- If two of the California honeys, western hyssop and fleabane, having a positive polarization at 200 C. are disregarded, then the remaining...1949, Roy A. Grout, editor, The Hive and the Honey Bee
- Nectar.
- Something sweet or desirable.
- O my love, my wife! / Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath / Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- the honey of his language1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)...
- A term of affection.
- Honey, would you take out the trash?
- Honey, I'm home.
- Synonyms:
- darling
- A woman, especially an attractive one.
- Man, there are some fine honeys here tonight!
- It's hard on a fella, when he don't know his way around
If I don't find me a honey to help me spend my money
I'm gonna have to blow this town.1963, Sam Cooke, “Another Saturday Night”, in Ain't That Good News
- A spectrum of pale yellow to brownish-yellow color, like that of most types of (the sweet substance) honey.
- Precum; pre-ejaculate.
Adjective
honey (comparative honeyer or honier, superlative honeyest or honiest)
- Involving or resembling honey.
- So work the honey-bees, / Creatures that by a rule in nature teach / The act of order to a peopled kingdom.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Dim as the forming of / Dew in the warming of / Moonlight, they light on the petals; / All is revealed to them; / All!—from the sunniest / Tips to the honiest / Heart, whence they yield to them / Spice, through the darkness that settles.1907, Madison Cawein, “One Day and Another: A Lyrical Eclogue”, in The Poems of Madison Cawein, volumes II (New World Idylls and Poems of Love), Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 8
- Of a pale yellow to brownish-yellow color, like most types of honey.
- Then I looked close at the scalp he stroked, which was of the silkiest blonde. For a moment I was sure it come from Olga’s dear head, and reckoned also he had little Gus’s fine skull-cover someplace among his filthy effects, the stinking old savage, living out his life of murder, rapine, and...1964, Thomas Berger, “My Indian Wife”, in Little Big Man, New York, N.Y.: The Dial Press, →LCCN, page 214
- Honey-sweet.
- But he answered the question with the honiest—Bohemian honey—of smiles: […]1876, Stephen J[oseph] Mac Kenna, Handfast to Strangers: A Novel, volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], page 137
- Mais il se ravisa et revint dire, de son air bonhomme : « Écoutez donc Lantier, j’ai besoin d’un homard…[…] »1886, Émile Zola, unknown translator, chapter II, in His Masterpiece? (L’Œuvre.) Or, Claude Lantier’s Struggle for Fame. A Realistic Novel., London: Vizetelly & Co., […], page 54
Verb
honey (third-person singular simple present honeys, present participle honeying, simple past and past participle honeyed)
- To sweeten; to make agreeable.
- To add honey to.
- To be gentle, agreeable, or coaxing; to talk fondly; to use endearments.
- Honeying and making love.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- To be or become obsequiously courteous or complimentary; to fawn.
- [O]ne / Discuss'd his tutor, rough to common men / But honeying at the whisper of a lord; / And one the Master, as a rogue in grain / Veneer'd with sanctimonious theory.1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Prologue”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 6
Proper noun capitalized: Honey
Honey (plural Honeys)
- A female given name
- A surname.
honey meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
honey in Hindi
- sweet substance produced by bees
- मधु madhu, शहद śahad
honey in Tamil
- sweet substance produced by bees
- தேன் tēṉ
- term of affection — see also darling
- தேனே tēṉē, செந்தேன் centēṉ
honey in Marathi
- sweet substance produced by bees
- मध madh
honey in Urdu
- sweet substance produced by bees
- شَہْد śahd, عَسَل 'asal, اَن٘گَبِین aṅgabīn, مَدُھو madhū
More languagesFewer languages
- honey in Bengali
- মধু modhu
- honey in Telugu
- తేనె tēne
- honey in Malayalam
- തേൻ tēṉ
- honey in Kannada
- ಜೇನು jēnu
- honey in Punjabi
- ਮਾਖੀ mākhī, ਸ਼ਹਿਦ śahid, ماکھی mākhī, شَہَد śahad
- honey in Gujarati
- મધુ madhu, દીકું dīkũ
- honey in Odia
- ମହୁ mahu
- honey in Sanskrit
- मधु madhu
- honey in Sinhala
- පැණි pæṇi, පැනි pæni
- honey in Assamese
- মৌ mou, মৌজোল mouzül
- honey in Nepali
- मह maha
- honey in Pashto
- ګبينه gabinǝ́, شات šāt, انګبين angabín, شهد šahd
- honey in Tagalog
- pulut-pukyutan
- honey in Arabic
- عَسَل ʕasal, شَهْد šahd, عسل ʕásal, عْسل ʕsəl
- honey in Malay
- madu, air lebah, manisan lebah, nisan
- honey in Indonesian
- madu
- honey in Persian
- عَسَل asal, اَنْگَبِین angabīn, شَهْد šahd, اَنْگُبین angobin
- honey in Thai
- น้ำผึ้ง nám-pʉ̂ng
- honey in Vietnamese
- mật ong
- honey in Myanmar
- ပျားရည် pya:rany
- Dhivehi
- މާމުއި māmui
- Kashmiri
- ماچھ māch
- Dzongkha
- སྦྱང sbyang, སྦྲང་རྩི sbrang rtsi
Examples of honey in a sentence
- Eucalyptus honeys could be characterized based on seven volatile compounds, whereas lavender honeys had only five...2011, Stephen Taylor, Advances in Food and Nutrition Research, volume 62:
- "So far, so good... are you doing okay?" "Flying... is awesome!" "Focus, honey."2013 July 30, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Tuesday, Jul 30, 2013:
- Honeys, basketball, music, I indulged in all of that shit to the max.2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 130:
- Unless I have a honey on the line, in which case, hoof it, capiche?2019, Mike Oppenhuizen, “Y.G.A.G.G.” (17:13 from the start), in Wendey Stanzler, director, Atypical, season 3, episode 4, spoken by Zahid...
Synonyms of honey
Forms of honey
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | honeys |
| alternative pronunciation-spelling | hunney |
| alternative pronunciation-spelling | hunny |
| plural (archaic) | honies |
| alternative form (obsolete) | hony |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | honeyer |
| comparative | honier |
| superlative | honeyest |
| superlative | honiest |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | honeys |
| present participle | honeying |
| past participle | honeyed |
| past | honeyed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Honeys |
Origin of honey
From Middle English hony, honi, from Old English huniġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hunag, from Proto-Germanic *hunagą (compare Saterland Frisian Hunich, West Frisian hunich, German Low German Honnig, German Honig), from earlier *hunangą (compare North Frisian honning, hönning, West Frisian huning, Dutch honing, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk honning, Swedish honung, Faroese hunangur, Icelandic hunang), from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂onk-o-s, from *kn̥h₂ónks. Cognate with Middle Welsh canecon (“gold”), Latin canicae pl (“bran”), Tocharian B kronkśe (“bee”), Albanian qengjë (“beehive”), Ancient Greek κνῆκος (knêkos, “safflower”), Northern Kurdish şan (“beehive”), Northern Luri گونج (gonj, “bee”), Finnish hunaja.
Words formed from honey
- Africanized honey bee
- apple honey
- bees and honey
- behoney
- bread and honey
- comb-honey
- crested honey buzzard
- dip me in honey and throw me to the lesbians
- don't get your honey where you make your money
- enhoney
- European honey buzzard
- hip-hop honey
- hon
- honey ant
- honey badger
- honeybag
- honey barge
- honey bear
- honey bee
- honeybee
- honeyberry
- honeybird
- honey blond
- Honeyboy
- honey bucket
- honeybug
- honeybunch
- honey bunch
- honey bun
- honeybun
- honeybunny
- honey bunny
- honeybush
- honey butter
- honey-buzzard
- honey buzzard
- honeycake
- honey cart
- honey catches more flies than vinegar
- honey child
- honey chile
- honey-colored
- honeycomb
- honeycombed
- honeycomb moth
- Honey Creek
- honeycreeper
- Honeycrisp
- honey decoction
- honeydew
- honeydew melon
- honey dill
- honey dill sauce
- honey dip
- honey-dipper
- honey dipper
- honey do list
- honey-do list
- honeydoll
- honey drizzler
Phrases with honey
- honey up
- honey bag
- honey oil
- honey pot
- honey sac
- mad honey
- honey ants
- honey bees
- honey bird
- honey buns
- honey fund
- honey hole
106 more phrasesFewer phrases
- honey joys
- honey kite
- honey mark
- honey moon
- honey pots
- honey sack
- honey sacs
- honey shot
- honey spot
- honey trap
- honey tube
- honey wasp
- honey wine
- sage honey
- sour honey
- honey bears
- honey carts
- honey funds
- honey fungi
- honey grass
- honey guide
- honey holes
- honey house
- honey kites
- honey lotus
- honey marks
- honey moons
- honey plant
- honey sacks
- honey shots
- honey spots
- honey stick
- honey toast
- honey traps
- honey tubes
- honey wagon
- honey wasps
- maple honey
- honey around
- honey barges
- honey flower
- honey fungus
- honey guides
- honey houses
- honey locust
- honey plants
- honey possum
- honey sticks
- honey wagons
- honey weasel
- manuka honey
- virgin honey
- creamed honey
- honey badgers
- honey buckets
- honey bunnies
- honey butters
- honey chillun
- honey dippers
- honey locusts
- honey lotuses
- honey mustard
- honey possums
- honey pot ant
- honey process
- honey stomach
- honey trapped
- honey trapper
- honey weasels
- pour honey on
- honey buzzards
- honey do lists
- honey mesquite
- honey mushroom
- honey pot ants
- honey stomachs
- honey trappers
- honey trapping
- pours honey on
- honey drizzlers
- honey extractor
- honey mesquites
- honey mushrooms
- honey tangerine
- poured honey on
- honey extractors
- pouring honey on
- western honey bee
- European honey bee
- no money, no honey
- sugar honey ice tea
- crested honey buzzards
- land of milk and honey
- thornless honey locust
- western honey mesquite
- pour honey in one's ear
- thornless honey locusts
- western honey mesquites
- pour honey into one's ear
- East African lowland honey bee
- East African lowland honey bees
- you catch more flies with honey than vinegar
- you attract more flies with honey than vinegar
- you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar
- you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar
- you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar
Words that rhyme with honey
5 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about honey
- What does honey mean?
- Honey means a sweet, viscous, gold-colored fluid produced from plant nectar by bees, and often consumed by humans.
- What is honey in Hindi?
- Honey in Hindi is मधु (madhu), शहद (śahad). See Honey meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use honey in a sentence?
- Eucalyptus honeys could be characterized based on seven volatile compounds, whereas lavender honeys had only five...
- What part of speech is honey?
- Honey can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce honey?
- Honey is pronounced /ˈhʌni/ (UK).
- What is the plural of honey?
- The plural of honey is honeys.
Words near honey in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: honey (page history and authors); Honey (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-honey.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-honey.wav.
Cite this entry: “honey.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/honey. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.