From queen + bee. Compare Middle English kyng of been (“queen bee”, literally “king of bees”).
queen bee (plural queen bees)
- A reproductive female (especially the only one) in a colony of bees.
1947, AI Root, The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture, Kessinger, published 2005, page 205:It is generally believed that the queen bee mates only once in her lifetime.
- (idiomatic, colloquial, derogatory) The most important or dominant woman in an organization or situation.
2003, Jim Hatfield, Extra Marital Temptations, iUniverse, page 28:She muttered to her mother, “There's that obnoxious redhead who thought she was the Queen Bee last year when she was a senior!”
- (Should we delete(+) this sense?) (figurative) A stem cell.
reproductive female bee
- Albanian: bletë mëmë f, matkë (sq) f, parëz (sq) f, rrojkë f
- Armenian: պարսամայր (hy) (parsamayr), մեղվամայր (meġvamayr)
- Basque: erlama (eu)
- Catalan: abella reina
- Chechen: э̄ла (eela)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 蜂后 (zh) (fēnghòu), 蜂王 (zh) (fēngwáng)
- Czech: včelí královna f
- Dutch: moer (nl) f, bijenkoningin (nl) f
- Erzya: мекшава (mekšava)
- Esperanto: abelreĝino (eo), reĝinabelo, (please verify) ĉefabelino
- Finnish: mehiläiskuningatar (fi), kuningatarmehiläinen (fi)
- French: reine (des abeilles) (fr) f
- Galician: abella raíña (gl), abella mestra (gl) f
- German: Bienenkönigin (de) f, Königin (de) f, Bienenkönig m, Bienenmutter f, (specialist) Weisel (de) f or m, Stockmutter (de) f
- Greek: μέλισσα βασίλισσα f (mélissa vasílissa)
- Hungarian: méhkirálynő (hu)
- Ido: abelino (io)
- Indonesian: lebah ratu
- Irish: cráinbheach f
- Italian: ape regina f
- Japanese: 女王蜂 (ja) (joōbachi)
- Javanese: guru tawon
- Korean: 여왕벌 (yeowangbeol)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: شاھەنگ (şaheng)
- Northern Kurdish: şaheng (ku) f
- Latvian: bišu māte
- Macedonian: матица f (matica)
- Maori: pī huauri
- Nepali: रानी मौरी (rānī maurī)
- Norman: méthe ès moûques f (Jersey), péthe ès bourdons m (Jersey), vielle des bourdes f (Jersey)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: bidronning m or f
- Nynorsk: bidronning f, biedronning f
- Old English: bēomōdor f
- Polish: królowa (pl) f
- Portuguese: abelha-rainha f, abelha-mestra (pt) f
- Romanian: regină (ro) f, matcă (ro) f
- Russian: ма́тка (ru) f (mátka)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: ма̏тица f
- Roman: mȁtica (sh) f
- Spanish: abeja reina f, abeja maestra f
- Swedish: bidrottning (sv) c
- Tamil: இராணித் தேனீ (ta) (irāṇit tēṉī)
- Turkish: kraliçe arı (tr)
- Vietnamese: ong chúa (vi)
- Volapük: jireg bienas, biejireg (older term, obsolete)
- Welsh: mamwenynen f, modrydaf f
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