Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several social bees of the genus Apis that produce honey and are native to Eurasia and Africa, especially A. mellifera, widely domesticated as a source of honey and beeswax and often kept in hives.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bee that collects and stores honey; specifically, the hive-bee, Apis mellifica. See cuts under bee.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any bee of the genus Apis, which lives in communities and collects honey, esp. the common domesticated hive bee (Apis mellifica), the Italian bee (Apis ligustica), and the Arabiab bee (Apis fasciata). The two latter are by many entomologists considered only varieties of the common hive bee. Each swarm of bees consists of a large number of workers (barren females), with, ordinarily, one queen or fertile female, but in the swarming season several young queens, and a number of males or drones, are produced.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative form of honey bee.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun social bee often domesticated for the honey it produces

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

honey +‎ bee

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