Honey

How to spell honey

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce honey

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does honey mean?

1. nounA thick, sweet, golden fluid produced by bees from flower nectar and used as a food.
2. nounAn affectionate name used for a person you love or feel fond of.

Honey in a sentence

• She stirred a spoonful of honey into her tea.

• She kissed her daughter goodnight and called her honey.

• The farmers sell jars of local honey at the weekend market.

• He left a note on the fridge that began with the word honey.

Where does honey come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Honey traces back to the Old English hunig, the native Anglo-Saxon name for the sweet substance made by bees, and it has stayed in everyday English ever since. It belongs to a wider Germanic family, with close cousins such as the Old High German honang, the Dutch honing, and the German Honig, all going back to a shared prehistoric Germanic root. Many scholars connect that root to an ancient word meaning 'golden' or 'yellow', a reference to the colour of the syrup itself, which is a charming reason the word may exist. Because the word is so old and so basic, its spelling settled early and never picked up the kind of Latin or French complications that trip people up elsewhere. The affectionate use, calling a loved one 'honey', grew naturally from the idea of sweetness and was well established in English by the 1300s. The main spelling trap is simply the ending, since the long final sound is written -ey rather than -ee or -y.

How the word is built

• hon- (from Old English hunig: honey)
• -ey (spelling of the final sound)