What does hive mean?
Word: Hive
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Hive means a box or other shelter where bees live and store their honey. A place full of busy people can also be called a hive.
How do you spell hive?
Syllables: hive
Tricky part: The final e is silent, so students who spell only by sound leave it off.
Watch out for: hiv, hiwe
Memory tip: Think of the silent e as the lid on the bees' box: leave it off and the hive is open.
Idioms and Phrases
- a hive of activity: a place where a lot of people are busy doing things Example: "The school hall was a hive of activity the day before Sports Day."
Hive in a sentence
Example 1: The beekeeper lifted the lid of the hive slowly and calmly.
Example 2: We could hear a steady hum coming from the wooden hive in the corner of the farm.
Example 3: Grandma buys honey from a farmer who keeps twenty hives.
Fun Fact
A strong honeybee hive in summer can hold tens of thousands of bees, yet usually only one of them, the queen, lays the eggs.
Practise the CREST Way
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
vieh
a) have
b) hive
c) five
d) hike
Show answer
b) hive. With no f, k or a in the jumble, the bees' home is the only word left.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Our biology teacher showed us how bees build wax cells inside the hyve.
a) cells
b) hyve
c) teacher
d) biology
Show answer
b) hyve. The long i sound here is spelt with a plain i, the way it is in five and dive.
Word Makeup
Choose the correctly spelt compound word:
a) footbal
b) earthwurm
c) beehive
d) grashopper
Show answer
c) beehive. Grasshopper doubles its s, football ends in a double l, and earthworm ends in worm.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) hive
b) nieghbour
c) liesure
d) rythm
Show answer
a) hive. Neighbour puts e before i, rhythm has an h after the r, and leisure starts lei.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A beekeeper opens a hive. What will she probably find inside?
a) a burrow under the soil
b) wax combs full of honey
c) a heap of acorns
d) a nest of twigs and leaves
Show answer
b) wax combs full of honey
2. Why might a farmer keep several hives near a mango orchard?
a) so the soil stays damp
b) so the bees can pollinate the flowers
c) so birds stay away from the fruit
d) so the trees get more shade
Show answer
b) so the bees can pollinate the flowers
