honeycomb

English

Honeycomb with drone larvae and eggs.

Etymology

From Middle English hony combe, from Old English huniġcamb; equivalent to honey +‎ comb. The Oxford English Dictionary (s.v. "honeycomb") suggests that the arrangement of plates of wax (with honey) "hanging parallel to each other from the roof of the hive suggests a comb with its teeth".

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈhʌniːkəʊm/
- Audio (RP) (file)

Noun

honeycomb (plural honeycombs)

A structure of hexagonal cells made by bees primarily of wax, to hold their larvae and for storing the honey to feed the larvae and to feed themselves during winter.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Proverbs 16:24:
  Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
- 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], OCLC 24531354, page 9:
  There was chocolate, new milk, honeycomb with its liquid amber droppings fragrant of a thousand flowers, a small loaf, and a little basket of green figs.
(by extension) Any structure resembling a honeycomb.
The wood porch was a honeycomb of termite tunnels before we replaced it.
- 1797 June 20, John Adams, Letter from John Adams to Uriah Forrest‎:
  [there is in Jefferson] […] evidence of a mind soured, yet seeking for popularity, and eaten to a honeycomb with ambition […]
(construction) Voids left in concrete resulting from failure of the mortar to effectively fill the spaces among coarse aggregate particles.
(aviation) Manufactured material used to manufacture light, stiff structural components using a sandwich design.
(solar cell) The texture of the surface of a solar cell, intended to increase its surface area and capture more sunlight.
(geometry) A space-filling packing of polytopes in 3- or higher-dimensional space.

Derived terms

honeycomb conjecture
honeycomb moth
honeycomb pleat
honeycomb stomach
honeycomb tetter
honeycomb toffee

Translations

structure of cells made by bees

Albanian: huall (sq), krodhë (sq), qengjë (sq), azhdë (sq)
Arabic: قَرْص اَلْعَسَل‎ (qarṣ al-ʿasal)
Armenian: մեղրախորիսխ (mełraxorisx)
Azerbaijani: şan
Bashkir: күҙәнәк (küðänäk)
Basque: aberaska
Belarusian: со́ты m pl (sóty)
Bulgarian: пчелна пита f (pčelna pita), пита (bg) f (pita)
Catalan: bresca (ca) f
Chinese:
Cantonese: 蜂巢 (fung¹ caau⁴)
Mandarin: 蜂窩／蜂窝 (zh) (fēngwō), 蜂巢 (zh) (fēngcháo)
Czech: plástev (cs) f
Dutch: raat (nl) f, honingraat (nl) f, bijenraat f
Erzya: керяз (kerjaz)
Esperanto: mielĉelaro, (alternate spelling) mielcxelaro, (alternate spelling) mielchelaro
Estonian: meekärg, kärg (et)
Faroese: vakskøka f (empty), vakskaka f (empty)
Finnish: hunajakenno, kenno (fi)
French: rayon de miel (fr) m, rayon de ruche m, alvéole d’abeille f, alvéole (fr) f
Galician: antena (gl) f, entena f, favo (gl) m, panal m, trevo (gl) m, zarapata f
Georgian: ფუტკრის ფიჭა (puṭḳris pič̣a)
German: Wabe (de) f, Bienenwabe (de) f, Honigwabe (de) f
Greek: κηρήθρα (el) f (kiríthra)
Ancient: κηρίον n (kēríon), σχαδών f (skhadṓn)
Hindi: छत्ता (hi) m (chattā), मधु कोष m (madhu koṣ)
Hungarian: lép (hu)
Icelandic: vaxkaka (is) f
Ido: vabo (io)
Irish: cíor mheala f
Italian: favo (it) m, cella (it) f, nido d'api m, nido (it) m
Japanese: 蜂の巣 (ja) (はちのす, hachi no su), 蜂巣 (ja) (ほうそう, hōsō), ハニカム (hanikamu)
Kazakh: ара ұясы (ara ūäsy)
Korean: 벌집 (beoljip), 벌방 (beolbang)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: şan (ku) m, şane (ku) m
Kyrgyz: аары уясы (aarı uyası)
Latin: favus m
Latvian: kāre f, šūna f
Lithuanian: korys m
Luxembourgish: Ros f, Wab f
Macedonian: саќе n (saḱe)
Maori: honikoma
Mongolian: зөгийн сархинаг (zögiin sarxinag)
Navajo: tsísʼná bitsiiʼáál
Persian: شان‎ (fa) (šân), شان عسل‎ (šân-e asal)
Plautdietsch: Honnichkorf m
Polish: plaster miodu, plaster (pl) m
Portuguese: favo (pt) m
Romanian: fagure (ro)
Russian: со́ты (ru) m pl (sóty)
Scottish Gaelic: cìr-mheala f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: саће n pl, (obsolete) сат m
Roman: saće n pl, (obsolete) sat (sh) m
Slovak: plást m
Slovene: sat (sl) m, satovje n
Spanish: panal (es) m
Swedish: vaxkaka (sv) c, bikaka (sv) c
Tagalog: anila
Tajik: шонаи асал (šonayi asal)
Thai: รังผึ้ง (th) (rang-pʉ̂ng)
Tibetan: སྦྲང་ཚང (sbrang tshang)
Turkish: petek (tr), dalak (tr) (colloquial)
Ukrainian: сті́льник m (stílʹnyk)
Urdu: چھتا‎ m (chattā), مدھو کوش‎ m (madhu koś)
Uzbek: mumkatak, asalari uyasi
Vietnamese: tảng ong
Volapük: mielaziöbem (vo), (alternate spellng) mielazioybem, (older term, obsolete) mielaväk
Walloon: raive (wa) f, tortea d' låme m, raiye di låme f
Welsh: crwybr m

any similar structure

Finnish: kennosto (fi)
Japanese: ハニカム (hanikamu)
Russian: со́ты (ru) m pl (sóty)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: саће n pl, (obsolete) сат m
Roman: saće n pl, (obsolete) sat (sh) m
Welsh: crwybr m

voids left in concrete

Finnish: huokoset (fi) pl

aviation: light material

Finnish: kennosto (fi)

solar cell surface texture

Finnish: kennosto (fi)

Verb

honeycomb (third-person singular simple present honeycombs, present participle honeycombing, simple past and past participle honeycombed)

To riddle something with holes, especially in such a pattern.
Termites will honeycomb a porch made of untreated pine.