honeycomb

B2 Topic:Animals
US /ˈhʌniˌkoʊm/ UK /ˈhʌnikəʊm/
noun verb Freq #35509

Meanings

  1. 1
    noun

    a structure of hexagonal wax cells made by bees to hold honey, pollen, and developing young

    The beekeeper lifted a frame of honeycomb from the hive.

  2. 2
    noun

    a structure or pattern of many small adjoining cells or cavities

    The panel has an aluminum honeycomb between two thin outer sheets.

  3. 3
    verb

    to fill or penetrate something with many holes, passages, or distributed elements

    Decades of tunneling had honeycombed the hillside.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 noun · a structure of hexagonal... comb
2 noun · a structure or pattern of... cellular structurelattice
3 verb · to fill or penetrate... perforateriddlepermeate
Word family
Forms honeycombed
Derived forms honeycombedhoneycombinghoneycomblike
Related forms beeswaxhivecell

Etymology

From Old English hunigcamb, a compound of honey + comb. The verb and extended noun senses arose from the comb's repeating cells and the many cavities they create.

Topics

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