HomeServicesBlogDictionariesContactSpanish Course
← Back to search

Meaning of Bee | Babel Free

Noun CEFR B2 Frequent
ˈbiː

Definitions

  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.
  2. A contest, especially for spelling; see spelling bee.
  3. A ring or torque; a bracelet.
  4. The name of the Latin script letter B/b.
  5. Any of the pieces of hard wood bolted to the sides of the bowsprit, to reeve the fore-topmast stays through.
    plural-normally
  6. someone connected with Barnet Football Club, as a fan, player, coach etc.
  7. A diminutive of the female given name Beatrice.
  8. Initialism of Black Economic Empowerment.
    South-Africa, abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable
  9. Any stinging flying insect, especially a wasp.
  10. A community gathering to share labour, e.g. a sewing bee or a quilting bee.
  11. Alternative letter-case form of bee.
    alt-of
  12. A surname.

Equivalents

العربية النّحلة بِي زنبور نحل
Български бе тлака
Català be
Čeština včela včelí
Cymraeg bi
Esperanto bo
Español be be alta be grande be labial be larga
Eesti talgud
فارسی ب بی
Français bee bée bée
Gaeilge beith
Galego be
ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi
עברית דבורה
Magyar kaláka verseny
Bahasa Indonesia lebah madukara
Íslenska
Italiano beè
日本語 ビー 花蜂
한국어 벌레
Kurdî be bi bo
Latina be
मराठी बी
Bahasa Melayu BI
မြန်မာဘာသာ ဘီး
Português
Русский би бэ толо́ка
Svenska be bi
தமிழ் பீ
Türkçe arı be
Українська бджола толока
Tiếng Việt be bọ
中文 B (bì)

Examples

“His face was belymmed as byes had him stounge[…].”
“An angry Wasp th'one in a viall had, / Th'other in hers an hony-laden Bee.”
“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?”
“Ariell: / Where the Bee ſucks, there ſuck I, / In a Cowslips bell, I lie, / There I cowch when Owles doe crie, / On the Batts backe I doe flie / after Sommer merrily. / Merrily, merrily, ſhall I liue now / Vnder the bloſſom that hangs on the Bow.”
“Bees are the moſt excellent of all Inſects vvhatſoever, and expreſſe both vvorth and vvonder in all their vvaies: […]”
“He stood across in the other garden, beside a bush of pale Michaelmas daisies, watching the last bees crawl into the hive.”
“Bees pollinate many of the world’s crops—a service estimated to be worth $15 billion a year in America alone.”
“New insights into bee movements and life cycles have been uncovered after researchers tracked the insects using tiny QR codes glued onto their backs. […] “This suggests that most of the foraging that the bees do occurs very close to the hive,” study co-author Margarita López-Uribe, an associate professor of entomology at PSU, told CNN on Monday.”
“geography bee”
“The cellar […] was dug by a bee in a single day.”
“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.”
“Particularly resistant, for example, in many parts of northern Europe was the “spinning bee”, a nocturnal gathering of women to exchange gossip, stories, refreshment and – crucially – light and heat, as they spun wool or flax, knitted or sewed.”
“And kyng Arthur gaf her a ryche bee of gold and soo she departed”
“...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...”
“"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.”

CEFR level

B2
Upper Intermediate
This word is part of the CEFR B2 vocabulary — upper intermediate level.
See all B2 English words →

See also

Learn this word in context

See Bee used in real conversations inside our free language course.

Start Free Course

Know this word better than we do? Language is a living thing — help us keep it growing. Collaborate with Babel Free