beeswax

English

Etymology

Beeswax

From bee +‎ -s- +‎ wax.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbiːzwæks/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːzwæks

Noun

beeswax (usually uncountable, plural beeswaxes)

1. A wax secreted by bees from which they make honeycomb; or, the processed form of this wax used in the manufacture of various goods.
2. (colloquial, mildly humorous) “Business”, as in such phrases as mind your own beeswax and none of your beeswax.

Synonyms

• E901 (when used as a glazing agent)

Derived terms

• mind your own beeswax

Translations

wax secreted by bees

• Arabic: شَمْع الْعَسَل m (šamʕ al-ʕasal)
• Armenian: մեղրամոմ (hy) (meġramom)
• Assamese: মৌসিটা (mouxita), মম (mom)
• Azerbaijani: mum (az), arı mumu
• Bashkir: балауыҙ (balawıź)
• Belarusian: пчалі́ны воск m (pčalíny vosk)
• Bengali: মোম (bn) (mōm)
• Bulgarian: пче́лен во́сък m (pčélen vósǎk)
• Catalan: cera d'abella f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蜜蠟／蜜蜡 (zh) (mìlà), 蜂蠟／蜂蜡 (zh) (fēnglà)

• Classical Nahuatl: xīcohcuitlatl
• Crimean Tatar: balavuz
• Czech: včelí vosk m
• Danish: bivoks (da) c or n
• Dupaningan Agta: lilen
• Dutch: bijenwas (nl) m
• Esperanto: abelvakso
• Estonian: mesilasvaha (et)
• Finnish: mehiläisvaha (fi)
• French: cire d’abeille (fr) f
• Galician: cera de abella f, borra de abella f, buio (gl) m, morria f
• German: Bienenwachs (de) n
• Greek: μελισσόκηρος m (melissókiros), μελισσοκέρι (el) n (melissokéri)

  Ancient: κηρός m (kērós)

• Hebrew: דונג (he) m (dónag)
• Hindi: मोम (hi) m (mom), मधुमोम m (madhumom)
• Hungarian: méhviasz (hu)
• Icelandic: bývax n
• Ingrian: vaha
• Italian: cera d'api
• Japanese: 蜜蝋 (ja) (みつろう, mitsurō), 封蝋 (ふうろう, fūrō)
• Kazakh: балауыз (balauyz)
• Khmer: ក្រមួនឃ្មុំ (krɑmuən khmum)
• Korean: 밀랍(蜜蠟) (ko) (millap), 봉랍(蜂蠟) (ko) (bongnap)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: şima (ku) f

• Kyrgyz: мом (mom)
• Latin: cera f
• Latvian: vasks (lv) m
• Macedonian: пчелин восок m (pčelin vosok)
• Malay: lilin lebah
• Middle English: wax
• Navajo: tsísʼná bijeeh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bivoks (no) m

  Nynorsk: bivoks m

• Ottoman Turkish: بالمومی (balmumu)
• Persian: موم (fa) (mum)
• Polish: wosk pszczeli (pl) m
• Portuguese: cera de abelha f
• Punjabi: ਮੋਮ f (mom)
• Romanian: ceară de albine (ro) f
• Russian: пчели́ный воск m (pčelínyj vosk)
• Scottish Gaelic: cèir f, cèir-sheillean f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: восковаринa f, пчелињи восак m

  Latin: voskovarina (sh) f, pčelinji vosak m

• Sicilian: cira (scn), cira dî lapi
• Slovak: včelí vosk m
• Slovene: čebelji vosek m
• Spanish: cera de abeja f
• Sudovian: vaskan
• Swedish: bivax (sv) n
• Tagalog: pagkit
• Tajik: мум (mum)
• Tatar: балавыз (tt) (balawız)
• Thai: ขี้ผึ้ง (th) (kîi-pʉ̂ng)
• Tibetan: སྤྲ་ཚིལ (spra tshil), བུང་བའི་སྤྲ་ཚིལ (bung ba'i spra tshil), སྦྲང་བུའི་སྤྲ་ཚིལ (sbrang bu'i spra tshil)
• Turkish: bal mumu (tr)
• Ukrainian: бджоли́ний ві́ск m (bdžolýnyj vísk)
• Urdu: موم m (mom)
• Venetian: zèra f
• Vietnamese: sáp ong
• Volapük: bienaväk (vo)
• Welsh: cŵyr gwenyn m

Verb

beeswax (third-person singular simple present beeswaxes, present participle beeswaxing, simple past and past participle beeswaxed)

1. (transitive) To polish with beeswax.