the bee's knees
Something or someone excellent, surpassingly wonderful, or cool.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Everyone says that new cafe is the bee's knees.”
“My grandfather always tells me that his old car was the bee's knees back in the day.”
“While critics often dismiss popular trends, the fans insist that the band's latest album is truly the bee's knees.”
first recorded 20th c. folk etymology
Attested since 1922, of unclear origin. There are several suggested origins, but it most likely arose in imitation of the numerous animal-related nonsense phrases popular in the 1920s such as the cat's pyjamas, cat's whiskers, cat's meow, gnat's elbow, monkey's eyebrows etc. A popular folk etymology has the phrase referring to the world champion dancer Bee Jackson. Another suggestion is that the phrase is a corruption of business. The singular bee's knee is attested from the late 18th century meaning something small or insignificant in the phrase big as a bee's knee. Also as weak as a bee's knee is attested in Ireland (1870). It is possible that the bee's knees is a deliberate inversion of this meaning but is not attested. Another possibility is that this is a reference to the (visible) blobs of pollen in bees' corbiculae.
Last updated August 10, 2026