honey
/ˈhʌni/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.37 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A sweet, viscous, gold-colored fluid produced from plant nectar by bees, and often consumed by humans.
Uncountable
noun
A spectrum of pale yellow to brownish-yellow color, like that of most types of (the sweet substance) honey.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The honey in the pot should last for years."
- "The physical properties of the different honeys, color, granulation, aroma, flavor, etc., are indicated in the table only in a very general way."
- "If two of the California honeys, western hyssop and fleabane, having a positive polarization at 200 C. are disregarded, then the remaining..."
- "Eucalyptus honeys could be characterized based on seven volatile compounds, whereas lavender honeys had only five..."
- "O my love, my wife! / Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath / Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty."
- "the honey of his language"
Etymology
From Middle English hony, honi, from Old English huniġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hunag, from Proto-Germanic *hunagą (compare Saterland Frisian Hunich, West Frisian hunich, German Low German Honnig, German Honig), from earlier *hunangą (compare North Frisian honning, hönning, West Frisian huning, Dutch honing, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk honning, Swedish honung, Faroese hunangur, Icelandic hunang), from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂onk-o-s, from *kn̥h₂ónks. Cognate with Middle Welsh canecon (“gold”), Latin canicae pl (“bran”), Tocharian B kronkśe (“bee”), Albanian qengjë (“beehive”), Ancient Greek κνῆκος (knêkos, “safflower”), Northern Kurdish şan (“beehive”), Northern Luri گونج (gonj, “bee”), Finnish hunaja.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈhʌni/
- British English: /ˈhʌni/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Law.
Inflected Forms
honeys (plural)
honies (archaic, plural)
hony (alternative, obsolete)
hunney (alternative, pronunciation spelling)
hunny (alternative, pronunciation spelling)
honeyer (comparative)
honier (comparative)
honeyest (superlative)
honiest (superlative)
honeys (present, singular)
honeying (participle, present)
honeyed (participle, past)