the bee's knees
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Something or someone outstandingly good, excellent, or wonderful.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
I think we'll have you looking like the bee's knees before they come in.’
Mary is fairly plain, but Tom thinks she's the bee's knees.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Imported from Wikipedia “English-language idioms” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29), pending review.
Common questions
What does “the bee's knees” mean?
Something or someone outstandingly good, excellent, or wonderful.
Is “the bee's knees” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.