Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A nutritious substance secreted by worker bees that serves as food for all young larvae and as the only food for larvae that will develop into queen bees. Royal jelly is sometimes used as a dietary supplement and in cosmetics.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A substance
secreted bybees to aid in the development ofimmature oryoung bees, called royal jelly because it is supplied in extra measure to those young that will becomequeen bees .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a secretion of the pharyngeal glands of bees that is fed to very young larvae and to bees destined to be queens
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word royal jelly.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
vendingmachine commented on the word royal jelly
"To demonstrate the relative importance of genetics and the environment, I use the example of a beehive. When a fertilized egg is laid by the queen bee in an ordinary alveolus and the larva is fed with standard food, a small, sterile female, a worker bee, is born. But when an egg with a similar genetic code is laid in a larger alveolus and the larva is fed a special food--the royal jelly--the resulting insect is a queen bee, a larger, fertile female."--Prof. Miguel Mota, Oeiras, Portugal
June 19, 2015