bee
noun
Simple meaning
A flying insect, of the clade Anthophila within the hymenopteran superfamily Apoidea, known for its organised societies.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
beeIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
informalproscribed
Any stinging flying insect, especially a wasp.
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.
A contest, especially for spelling; see spelling bee.
A community gathering to share labour, e.g. a sewing bee or a quilting bee.
The name of the Latin-script letter B/b.
A diminutive of the female given name Beatrice.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (informal, proscribed) Any stinging flying insect, especially a wasp.
Used this way, bee is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use bee
- “A busy bee collected nectar from the bright flowers in the garden.”
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.