Word.ws English Dictionary

thermoballing

thermoballing noun: an incident where honeybees surround a threat and cause it to die through high temperature.

Noun

thermoballing (uncountable)

  1. An incident where honeybees surround a threat and cause it to die through high temperature.
    • Certain subspecies, such as Japanese honey bees, guard against hornets by "thermoballing."2007 September 17, “Honey Bee Defense Leaves Hornets Breathless”, in Science, archived from the original on 04 Jun 2024
    • Some honeybees have adapted to defend themselves from Asian giant hornets via thermoballing, which is when they surround the hornet and vibrate their muscles.2024 June 4 (last accessed), Helen Roy, “Asian hornet guide: how to identify, the difference from a native European hornet, and how to report a sighting”, in BBC Wildlife Magazine, archived from the...

Origin of thermoballing

From thermo- + balling.

Questions about thermoballing

What does thermoballing mean?
Thermoballing means an incident where honeybees surround a threat and cause it to die through high temperature.
What part of speech is thermoballing?
Thermoballing is a noun.

Words near thermoballing in the dictionary

  1. thermoanalyzers
  2. thermoanesthesia
  3. thermoanæsthesia
  4. thermobalance
  5. thermobalances
  6. thermoballing
  7. thermoballistic
  8. thermobaric
  9. thermobaric weapon
  10. thermobaric weapons
  11. thermobarics

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thermoballing (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:

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