Hornet

How to spell hornet

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hornet

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hornet mean?

1. nounA large stinging wasp with a powerful sting, known for building paper nests.

Hornet in a sentence

• A single hornet drifted in through the open kitchen window.

• The gardener found a hornet nest tucked under the shed roof.

Where does hornet come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Hornet comes from the Old English word hyrnet or hurnitu, the native Anglo-Saxon name for the large stinging wasp. It belongs to a broad Germanic family of words, with close cousins in Dutch (horzel) and German (Hornisse), all describing the same fearsome insect. The name is widely thought to connect to the same root as 'horn', either because of the insect's prominent antennae or because of the loud, droning, horn-like sound it makes in flight. Over the centuries the spelling settled into the modern 'hornet' with the familiar -et ending, which can look like a diminutive suffix but here simply preserves the old word's tail. Because it is a genuinely ancient English word rather than a later borrowing, its spelling is plain and phonetic, with no foreign silent letters to trip the writer.

How the word is built

• horn (Old English hyrnet, related to 'horn', referring to the antennae or the loud buzz)
• -et