Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various large, hairy, social bees of the genus Bombus that nest underground.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A large hairy social bee of the family Apidœ, subfamily Socialiœ, and genus Bombus, species of which are found in most parts of the world. There are upward of 60 species in North America alone. Like other social bees, these have males, females, and drones, and live in larger or smaller communities in underground burrows, or beneath stones, sods, stumps, etc.; but they also use the nests of other animals, as mice or birds. See
Bombus , and cut underHymenoptera . Also calledhumblebee , and dialectally bumbee, bumble, bumbler, bombell, and bummle.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A large bee of the genus Bombus, sometimes called
humblebee ; -- so named from its sound.
WordNet 3.0
- n. robust hairy social bee of temperate regions
Etymologies
- bumble2 + bee1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The causes of the recent major declines in bumblebee populations are not certain, but some factors are known to be important.”
“Cause I get to ride around on a giant bumblebee, which is fantastic.”
“Aside from having people issues and a bit of a problem with alcohol no big deal, the bumblebee was a pretty chill dude.”
“He was still living down the grief he got when, after painting our house bright yellow and black, we became known as the bumblebee family.”
“When I was a child, I heard a preacher say that the bumblebee is a miracle because scientists didn't know how such thin legs could support such a weight, so this was proof that God made the bumblebee!”
“The Latin name for the bumblebee is the delicious sounding Bombus”
“The plight of the bumblebee is a matter of great concern.”
“The smallest bats from Thailand are called bumblebee bats and are so small you could put one in a teaspoon.”
“I mean, it's one thing for her to hear "bumblebee" and fail to realize that it's pretty weird for the customer to want to replace the robot with a bug.”
“Passing in front of a wall now riddled with machine-gun bullets, they raced to the roof and piled into a "bumblebee" helicopter.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bumblebee’.
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fish list
lots and lots of fish, a piscatorial
wetdreamablet, agnathan, ahi, ahuru, ahuruhuru, albacore, albicore, alec, alewife, allice, allis, amberjack and 840 more...
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bum phrases/words
how bum is used
bumbag, bum-barrel, bum-beating, bum-blade, bum-boy, bum-brusher, bum cleavage, bum-creeper, bum-dagger, bum-delighting, bum-fluff, bum-fodder and 104 more...
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Things with wings
For fanciful birds, see reesetee's •Open List: Flights of Fancy.
For chickens, see Chickens.
For birds endemic to the United States and/or North America, see reesetee's Mo...airplane, dragonfly, pegasus, butterfly, Buffalo, robot bomb, periodical cicada, caduceus, angel, those flying monk..., cherub, housefly and 52 more...
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Words For Novel (Part 3)
fibers, gypsy, polymer, schism, syphilitic garden..., holocaust, scrutinant, contemplate, aftermath, consequence, deadlock, impasse and 151 more...
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Childhood
Hula-Hoop, fairies, twirl, twinkle, glitter, candyland, firefly, June bug, wonderland, Alice-in-Wonderland, bedtime stories, spelling bee and 27 more...
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Purr words
Please add one snarl word for every purr word, in the interests of harmony.
Note: this list is for purr words. Snarl words belong on the other list, not this one. Only purr words need ...bumblebee, kitten, hummingbird, turtledove, felt, daffodil, hourglass, surf, satyr, gloved, honeyed, raspberry and 9 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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dickinsonian
psalteries, enamoring, estates, whim, calyx, hoisted, nought, pentateuchal, retina, obviated, revelation, stalactite and 193 more...
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Flutter
tuberose, golden apple, apple cider, unicorn, extraordinary, Pleiades, Merope, speckle, glitter, rose, pitter-pat, whale and 314 more...
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imogen's Words
coagitate, cloche, harum-scarum, foxglove, cryptolect, cant, roux, angora, duff, ulysse, schadenfreude, pepperpot and 315 more...
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Favorite Tangible Object Words
Trimming the "Chained Bear's Favorites" list so I don't crash people's computers... like my own...
castanets, whaup, budgie, wallabies, ring-wraith, hobbit, chinchilla, guano, merganser, phalarope, phalarope, curlew and 138 more...
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colleen's words ii
sibilant, sundry, spindle, distaff, device, mortar, pestle, scythe, flail, thresh, frown, elementary and 495 more...
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The Bee List
Some words pilfered shamelessly from ruzuzu's https://www.wordnik.com/lists/bees.
spelling bee, beehive, bee-stung, beeswax, none of your beeswax, bee’s knees, bee in one's bonnet, beeline, beekeeper, beekeeping, bee-hunter, honeybee and 36 more...
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Mary and Max (2009)
Words from 2009 'Mary and Max' film.
muddy, puddle, birthmark, piggyback, pensive, gumnut, pompom, salvage, takeaway, oven, shed, deliberate and 112 more...
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vinyl's Words
deliverator, finna, metric fuckton, fag, hyphy, ginormous, sacrilicious, fantabulous, macaca, n-word, pterodactyl, genious and 560 more...
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Tickles my humerus
I find these to be inherently funny.
cow tipping, bumblebee, homoscedasticity, seattle, wagga wagga, booby, pants, guacamole, poodle, fanny pack, nincompoop, svenborgia and 161 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bumblebee.

bilby Diction, please! Oct 30, 2008
oroboros "Bum Bill Bee". One of the characters in Geo. Herriman's Krazy Kat cartoon strip. Oct 29, 2008
reesetee Hence my hesitation. :-) Oct 28, 2008
chained_bear Removing bulk tags is still manual, I think. Oct 28, 2008
reesetee That's true! This one, though, is a specific hummingbird name.
Still considering retagging that list--many of the words by themselves don't suggest birdy-ness. But I'll think about it. :-) Oct 28, 2008
chained_bear Well, you could just remove this one tag, if you wanted. :) Though I've seen enough really large bumblebees that I believe in some locales they do resemble birds... Oct 28, 2008
reesetee C_b's right. It's the adjective part of a bird name and is on my bird adjectives list for Bumblebee Hummingbird. However, it does make me rethink tagging all the words on that list as such....
Bilby, you're a hairy-bodied insect? I had no idea. Oct 28, 2008
chained_bear It's on a bird-description list, and possibly was bulk-tagged. Oct 27, 2008
vanishedone Why is this tagged bird? Oct 27, 2008
bilby I'm concerned that I fit WeirdNet's definition. Oct 27, 2008