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vespiary

/ˈvɛspiˌɛri/
IPA guide

Other forms: vespiaries

A vespiary is a group of wasps. It's also the name of their nest, so you might warn your barbecue guests, "Don't go near the vespiary in the backyard!"

Vespiary comes from the Latin vespa, "wasp," and is modeled after the term for a bees' nest, apiary. You may have seen a vespiary and not realized you were looking at a structure built by yellowjackets, hornets, or other wasps. Many of these nests look like they're made of paper or papier-mâché, and most are inhabited by one queen and her worker wasps, who form a colony that's also referred to as a vespiary.

Definitions of vespiary
  1. noun
    a nest of wasps that live together as a group or colony
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