# hive

/ˈhaɪv/ (US) · /hˈaɪv/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/hive
Updated: 2026-06-20

## Senses

### 1. bee home

noun · CEFR B2

a container or natural place where bees live and make honey.

For teachers: a natural or man-made structure used as a habitation for a colony of honeybees.

- The beekeeper carefully opened the hive to check on the health of the queen.
- Wild honeybees often establish a hive within the hollow of an old oak tree, protected from the wind and rain.

### 2. busy place

noun · CEFR C1 · Literary

a place full of people who are very busy and moving around quickly.

For teachers: a place or situation teeming with busy occupants or intense activity.

- The office was a hive of activity as the team prepared for the big launch.
- By mid-morning, the stock exchange floor had become a hive of frantic energy, with traders shouting orders over the constant din of telephones.

### 3. skin rash

noun · CEFR B2

a red, itchy bump on your skin, often caused by an allergy.

For teachers: a single lesion of urticaria; an itchy, swollen area of the skin typically resulting from an allergic reaction.

- He noticed a small hive on his arm after walking through the tall grass.
- The patient presented with a solitary hive on the forearm, which quickly spread into a systemic case of urticaria after further exposure to the allergen.

Usage: Usually used in the plural form 'hives' to describe the condition.

### 4. computing/registry

noun · CEFR C2 · Technical

a specific part of the computer's registry where settings are stored.

For teachers: a discrete logical group of keys, subkeys, and values in the Windows Registry that has a corresponding set of supporting files.

- The system administrator had to repair a corrupted registry hive to fix the boot error.
- Each hive is associated with a specific file on the hard drive, allowing the operating system to load user-specific configurations during the login process.

### 5. to store or gather

verb · CEFR C2 · Literary

to put bees into a hive or to store something away for later.

For teachers: to collect bees into a hive or, metaphorically, to store or accumulate resources in a central place.

- The farmers would hive the grain in large barns to prepare for the winter.
- The corporation managed to hive away its profits in various offshore accounts to minimize its annual tax burden.

## Examples

- The garden has a wooden hive for the bees.
- By eight in the morning, the office becomes a hive of activity as everyone prepares for the meeting.
- The old marketplace was a literal hive of commerce, with merchants shouting prices and porters weaving through the dense crowds with heavy crates.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.