Phrase guide

bee fly

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

Any of the flies in the family Bombyliidae, with adults that look like bumblebees and larvae that are parasitic on the eggs or larvae of other insects.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

hairy nectar-eating fly that resembles a bee; larvae are parasitic on larvae of bees and related insects

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: fly

History

Etymology

From bee + fly. Compare Icelandic býfluga.

Across languages

Translations

25 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Azerbaijani: vızıldayan — bee fly
  • Bengali: ভোমরা মাছি (bhōmra machi) — bee fly
  • Catalan: bombílid — bee fly
  • Dutch: wolzwever — bee fly
  • Esperanto: bombilio — bee fly
  • French: bombyle — bee fly
  • Georgian: ბზუალას (bzualas) — bee fly
  • German: Wollschweber — bee fly
  • Hungarian: pöszörlégy — bee fly
  • Indonesian: lalat lebah — bee fly
  • Irish: bheach-chuil — bee fly
  • Italian: bombilio — bee fly
  • Japanese: 吊虻 (tsuriabu) — bee fly
  • Korean: 재니등에 (jaenideung'e) — bee fly
  • Kyrgyz: ызылдак (ızıldak) — bee fly
  • Lithuanian: musė zvimbeklė — bee fly
  • Malay: lalat lebah — bee fly
  • Navajo: tsísʼnági átʼéhígíí — bee fly
  • Norwegian Bokmål: humleflue — bee fly
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: humlefluge — bee fly
  • Polish: bujanka — bee fly
  • Russian: жужжа́ло (žužžálo) — bee fly
  • Russian: муха-жужжало (muxa-žužžalo) — bee fly
  • Somali: dhurde — bee fly
  • Spanish: bombílido — bee fly