See bee in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"descendants": [
{
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"word": "bee"
},
{
"lang": "Scots",
"lang_code": "sco",
"word": "bee"
},
{
"lang": "Scots",
"lang_code": "sco",
"word": "be"
},
{
"lang": "Scots",
"lang_code": "sco",
"word": "beye"
},
{
"lang": "Scots",
"lang_code": "sco",
"word": "bie"
},
{
"lang": "Scots",
"lang_code": "sco",
"word": "bea"
},
{
"lang": "Yola",
"lang_code": "yol",
"tags": [
"plural"
],
"word": "been"
}
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "bee"
},
"expansion": "",
"name": "etymid"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "ang",
"3": "bēo"
},
"expansion": "Old English bēo",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "gmw-pro",
"3": "*biju"
},
"expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *biju",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "gem-pro",
"3": "*bijō"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Germanic *bijō",
"name": "inh"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Old English bēo, from Proto-West Germanic *biju, from Proto-Germanic *bijō.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "been",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "bees",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "be",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "beo",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "bey",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "noun",
"g": "",
"g2": "",
"g3": "",
"head": "",
"sort": ""
},
"expansion": "bee",
"name": "head"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "been",
"pl2": "bees"
},
"expansion": "bee (plural been or bees)",
"name": "enm-noun"
}
],
"lang": "Middle English",
"lang_code": "enm",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Middle English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 24 entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"langcode": "enm",
"name": "Bees",
"orig": "enm:Bees",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
12,
16
]
],
"bold_translation_offsets": [
[
10,
14
]
],
"english": "Just like bees swarm from a hive / Out of the devil's arse there were driven / Twenty thousand friars on a rout / And throughout hell they swarmed all about...",
"ref": "a. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Summoner's Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, lines 1693–1696:",
"text": "Right so as bees out swarmen from an hyve, / Out of the develes ers ther gonne dryve / Twenty thousand freres on a route / And thurghout helle swarmed al aboute...",
"translation": "Just like bees swarm from a hive / Out of the devil's arse there were driven / Twenty thousand friars on a rout / And throughout hell they swarmed all about...",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A bee (insect that collects pollen)"
],
"id": "en-bee-enm-noun-2V~QQktn",
"links": [
[
"bee",
"bee#English"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/beː/"
},
{
"ipa": "/bøː/",
"tags": [
"Early-Middle-English"
]
}
],
"word": "bee"
}
{
"categories": [
"Pages with 24 entries",
"Pages with entries"
],
"descendants": [
{
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"word": "bee"
},
{
"lang": "Scots",
"lang_code": "sco",
"word": "bee"
},
{
"lang": "Scots",
"lang_code": "sco",
"word": "be"
},
{
"lang": "Scots",
"lang_code": "sco",
"word": "beye"
},
{
"lang": "Scots",
"lang_code": "sco",
"word": "bie"
},
{
"lang": "Scots",
"lang_code": "sco",
"word": "bea"
},
{
"lang": "Yola",
"lang_code": "yol",
"tags": [
"plural"
],
"word": "been"
}
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "bee"
},
"expansion": "",
"name": "etymid"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "ang",
"3": "bēo"
},
"expansion": "Old English bēo",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "gmw-pro",
"3": "*biju"
},
"expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *biju",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "gem-pro",
"3": "*bijō"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Germanic *bijō",
"name": "inh"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Old English bēo, from Proto-West Germanic *biju, from Proto-Germanic *bijō.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "been",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "bees",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "be",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "beo",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "bey",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "noun",
"g": "",
"g2": "",
"g3": "",
"head": "",
"sort": ""
},
"expansion": "bee",
"name": "head"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "been",
"pl2": "bees"
},
"expansion": "bee (plural been or bees)",
"name": "enm-noun"
}
],
"lang": "Middle English",
"lang_code": "enm",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"Middle English entries with incorrect language header",
"Middle English lemmas",
"Middle English nouns",
"Middle English terms derived from Old English",
"Middle English terms derived from Proto-Germanic",
"Middle English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic",
"Middle English terms inherited from Old English",
"Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic",
"Middle English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic",
"Middle English terms with quotations",
"Pages with 24 entries",
"Pages with entries",
"enm:Bees"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
12,
16
]
],
"bold_translation_offsets": [
[
10,
14
]
],
"english": "Just like bees swarm from a hive / Out of the devil's arse there were driven / Twenty thousand friars on a rout / And throughout hell they swarmed all about...",
"ref": "a. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Summoner's Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, lines 1693–1696:",
"text": "Right so as bees out swarmen from an hyve, / Out of the develes ers ther gonne dryve / Twenty thousand freres on a route / And thurghout helle swarmed al aboute...",
"translation": "Just like bees swarm from a hive / Out of the devil's arse there were driven / Twenty thousand friars on a rout / And throughout hell they swarmed all about...",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A bee (insect that collects pollen)"
],
"links": [
[
"bee",
"bee#English"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/beː/"
},
{
"ipa": "/bøː/",
"tags": [
"Early-Middle-English"
]
}
],
"word": "bee"
}
Download raw JSONL data for bee meaning in Middle English (2.9kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Middle English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-12-23 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-12-02 using wiktextract (6fdc867 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.