1
: a bed of soil enclosed in glass, heated especially by fermenting manure, and used for forcing or for raising seedlings
2
: an environment that favors rapid growth or development
a hotbed of activity
Synonyms
Examples of hotbed in a Sentence
a hotbed of political unrest
prerevolutionary Boston was viewed as a hotbed of treason by the British
Recent Examples on the Web
The Golden State is a hotbed of geothermal activity, with warm waters bubbling up from the Earth's interior and speckling the landscape with pools, from Mendocino County to Los Angeles.
—
Stacey Leasca, Travel + Leisure, 31 May 2024
South Florida has been a hotbed of PPP loan fraud committed by hundreds of business people and others charged with stealing millions from the government program by falsifying loan applications for their companies, including falsified employee, revenue, income and tax records.
—Jay Weaver, Miami Herald, 31 May 2024
Rich white people had the means to flee hotbeds of disease, but African American communities in larger cities were left to shelter in place.
—Faron Levesque, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 May 2024
Brazil became a hotbed for disinformation ahead of the 2018 election won by Jair Bolsonaro.
—Mauricio Savarese and Gabriela Sá Pessoa, The Christian Science Monitor, 16 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for hotbed 
Stacey Leasca, Travel + Leisure, 31 May 2024
South Florida has been a hotbed of PPP loan fraud committed by hundreds of business people and others charged with stealing millions from the government program by falsifying loan applications for their companies, including falsified employee, revenue, income and tax records.
—Jay Weaver, Miami Herald, 31 May 2024
Rich white people had the means to flee hotbeds of disease, but African American communities in larger cities were left to shelter in place.
—Faron Levesque, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 May 2024
Brazil became a hotbed for disinformation ahead of the 2018 election won by Jair Bolsonaro.
—Mauricio Savarese and Gabriela Sá Pessoa, The Christian Science Monitor, 16 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for hotbed
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hotbed.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Hotbed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hotbed. Accessed 6 Jun. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
hotbed
noun
hot·bed
ˈhät-ˌbed 
1
: a heated bed of soil enclosed in glass and used for growing seedlings
2
: an environment that favors rapid growth or development
a hotbed of innovation
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