busy as a bee
/ˈbɪziæzəˈbiː/
"busy-as-a-bee" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“busy as a bee” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an adjective - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Very active; working constantly.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | busy as a bee |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈbɪziæzəˈbiː/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “busy as a bee” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for busy as a bee is 13 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbɪziæzəˈbiː/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Very active; working constantly.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for busy as a bee, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Compare Middle English bisy as bees. The correct English form is busy as a bee, spelled B-U-S-Y- -A-S- -A- -B-E-E.
Definition
- 1Very active; working constantly.
Etymology
Compare Middle English bisy as bees.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “busy as a bee”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-U-S-Y- -A-S- -A- -B-E-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɪziæzəˈbiː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.