honey pots

Meanings

1. 1nounplural

   Containers used for storing honey, usually with a lid.

   Grammar: Plural of honey pot: one honey pot, several honey pots.

   Patterns

   • a row of honey pots

   The shop sold painted ceramic honey pots.

   Honey pots lined the shelf in the farmer's market stall.

   She filled two honey pots from the new jar.

2. 2nounpluralfigurative

   Places or things that strongly attract many people, often because they offer something desirable.

   Grammar: Plural; usually used figuratively: tourist honey pots.

   Patterns

   • honey pots for something

   Famous cathedrals are honey pots for visitors in summer.

   The seaside towns became honey pots for day trippers.

   Rich regions can be honey pots for job seekers.

3. 3nounpluralcomputingtechnical

   Decoy computer systems set up to lure attackers so that their methods can be studied.

   Grammar: Plural; the technical use is usually spelled honeypots.

   Patterns

   • set up honey pots
   • trap hackers with honey pots

   The security team set up honey pots to study new attacks.

   Honey pots look like real servers but hold no real data.

   Researchers learned from the honey pots which tools hackers prefer.

Word forms

Common combinations

tourist honey pots

Venice and Rome are tourist honey pots.

set up honey pots

Companies set up honey pots to detect intruders.

honey pots for visitors

The beaches are honey pots for visitors every August.

ceramic honey pots

Ceramic honey pots make good gifts.

deploy honey pots

The network team deployed honey pots on the test system.

Synonyms and how they differ

magnets

Magnets used figuratively simply means things that attract people, without the sweet or trap flavor of honey pots.

decoys

Decoys always suggest deliberate deception, whereas honey pots can also be innocent attractions.

hotspots

Hotspots stresses busy or popular places and does not suggest sweetness or a trap.

Word family

honey pot noun

singular form

honeypot noun

closed spelling, common in computing

honey noun

sweet food made by bees

pot noun

a round container

Commonly confused: honey pots or honeypots?

Practice

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Write a sentence using “honey pots”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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