Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Onomatopoeia

Definition: Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia

Noun

1. Using words that imitate the sound they denote.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "onomatopoeia" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references)

Etymology: Onomatopoeia \On`o*mat`o*p[oe]"ia\, noun. [Latin expression, from the Greek expression name to make.]. (Websters 1913)


Synonyms within Context: Onomatopoeia

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Language

Confusion of tongues, Babel, pasigraphie; pantomime; (signs); onomatopoeia; betacism, mimmation, myatism, nunnation; pasigraphy.

Nomenclature

Noun: nomenclature; naming; Verb: nuncupation, nomination, baptism; orismology; onomatopoeia; antonomasia.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Specialty Definition: Onomatopoeia

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

In linguistics and poetry, onomatopoeia is the device of a word, or occasionally, a grouping of words, with a sound imitating the sound it is describing, such as "bang", "click", "fizz", "hush". For animals, the following words are typically used in English:

A number of animals, especially birds, also get their names from the onomatopoeic link with the calls they make, such as the Cuckoo and the Chiffchaff.

Advertising uses onomatopeoia as a mnemonic so consumers will remember their products:

The sound of Tennyson's words reinforces the actual words describing a lazy summer's day: The moan of doves in immemorial elms, / And murmuring of innumerable bees.

According to Dick Higgins, "Three basic types of sound poetry from the relative past come to mind immediately: folk varieties, onomatopoetic or mimetic types, and nonsense poetries. The folk roots of sound poetry may be seen in the lyrics of certain folk songs, such as the Horse Songs of the Navajos or in the Mongolian materials collected by the Sven Hedin expedition." (Primary Reference: Henning Haslund-Christiansen, "The Music of the Mongols: Eastern Mongolia" 1943:New York, Da Capo Press:1971; Secondary Reference: "A TAXONOMY OF SOUND POETRY" by Dick Higgins, From "PRECISELY: TEN ELEVEN TWELVE" (1981), RELATED RESOURCE: Dick Higgins' Audio Works on UbuWeb Sound Poetry, URL http://www.ubu.com/papers/higgins_sound.html ).

Onomatopoeia in Music

Onomatopoeia-based music uses the mouth and vocal cords (that is, voice) as the primary musical instrument. A common music tool in European and American cultures uses the voice instrumental tool that is technically called a solfege. A solfege is a vocalized musical scale that is commonly known as Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti. A solfege may be sung, spoken or used in a combination. A variety of similar tools are found in scat singing of jazz, Delta blues and also rock and roll and the ska variation of reggae music (especially in the form of ska called Two Tone).

It should be noted that historically, some forms of onomatopoeia served as a mnemonic and a mimetic tool for musicians around the world. See mouth music.

See also:

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Onomatopoeia."

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Crosswords: Onomatopoeia

English words defined with "onomatopoeia": onomatopoeic, onomatopoetic, Onomatopy. (references)

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Commercial Usage: Onomatopoeia

DomainTitle

Music

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Onomatopoeia

"Onomatopoeia" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Onomatopoeia" is used about 12 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Noun (singular)100%12101,599

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Onomatopoeia

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

onomatopoeia

160

onomatopoeia poem

77

example onomatopoeia

18

onomatopoeia poetry

13

example onomatopoeia poem

12

onomatopoeia poem using

4

onomatopoeia words

4

definition onomatopoeia

3

example onomatopoeia poetry

3

define onomatopoeia

3

onomatopoeia sound

2

list onomatopoeia

2

japanese onomatopoeia

2

lesson onomatopoeia plan

2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Onomatopoeia

Language Translations for "onomatopoeia"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Albanian

  

onomatope. (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

ономатопея, звукоподражателна дума. (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

象聲詞 . (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

تسمیه تقلیدی , تسمیه صوفی , صداواژه . (various references)

   

German

  

onomatopöie, schallnachahmung, lautmalerei. (various references)

   

Greek 

  

παραγωγή λέξεωσ κατ' απομίμηση ήχου, ονοματοποιία. (various references)

   

Italian

  

onomatopeia. (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

オクタン価 (enthusiast, fantasy object for masturbation, geek, honor, love affair with colleague, masturbation, nerd, Occam, ocean space explorer, Oceania, octane value, octet, odometer, of course, off, off the record, offence, offense, offer, office, office automation, office computer, office girl, office lady, office wife, officer, official, official handicap, official record, off-season, offshore, offshore center, offshore fund, off-side, Ohio, Oklahoma, okra, OL, onanism, onion, onyx, opal, opinion, opinion leader, orchestra, Oscar, oscillograph, oscilloscope, Oslo, osmium, OSPER, ostracism, ostrich, ostrich policy, Othello, Ottawa, Oxford, oxtail, ozone, ozone hole, respectable person). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

オノマトペー , オノマトペア . (various references)

   

Manx

  

arrish-ockleeaght. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

onomatopoeiaay

   

Portuguese

  

onomatopéia, botão liga-desliga. (various references)

   

Romanian

  

onomatopee (echoism, echo-ward). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

onomatopeja. (various references)

   

Spanish

  

onomatopeya. (various references)

   

Thai

  

การสร้างคำโ"ยการเลียนเสียงธรรมชาติ. (various references)

   

Ukranian 

  

ономатопея, звуконаслідування, звуконаслідувальне слово (onomatop). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

sự cấu tạo từ tượng thanh từ tượng thanh sự dùng từ tượng thanh. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Onomatopoeia

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Greek700 BCE-300 CE

onomatopoiia. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Onomatopoeia

Derivations

Words beginning with "onomatopoeia": onomatopoeias. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Onomatopoeia" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: anomatopoeia, onamatopoeia, onomaetopoeia, onomanopoeia, onomatapoeia, onomatopaeia, onomatopeia, onomatopeoia, onomatopoaeia, onomatopoea, onomatopoei, onomatopoia, onomatopoiea, onomoatopoeia, onomotopoeia, onomtopoeia, ononatopoeia, otomatopoeia. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Onomatopoeia"

Words rhyming with "onomatopoeia" (pronounced 'On`o*mat`o*p[oe]"ia'): Battalia, Cassiopeia, Hygeia, Melopoeia, Pharmacopoeia, Prosopopoeia, Raia, Sapucaia, Scaglia. (additional references)

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Anagrams: Onomatopoeia

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "a-a-e-i-m-n-o-o-o-o-p-t"

-4 letters: ptomaine.

-5 letters: amentia, amniote, amotion, animate, animato, emotion, ipomoea, maintop, metopon, patinae, pimento, ptomain, tampion, timpana, timpano, tompion.

 Words containing the letters "a-a-e-i-m-n-o-o-o-o-p-t"
 

+1 letter: onomatopoeias.

 

+4 letters: onomatopoeically.

 

+5 letters: onomatopoetically.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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Alternative Orthography: Onomatopoeia


Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

4F 6E 6F 6D 61 74 6F 70 6F 65 69 61

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

=

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

---    -.    ---    --    .-    -    ---    .--.    ---    .    ..    .-

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01001111 01101110 01101111 01101101 01100001 01110100 01101111 01110000 01101111 01100101 01101001 01100001

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#79 &#110 &#111 &#109 &#97 &#116 &#111 &#112 &#111 &#101 &#105 &#97

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

004F 006E 006F 006D 0061 0074 006F 0070 006F 0065 0069 0061

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

498081796786818281717567

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Crosswords
3. Usage: Commercial
4. Usage Frequency
5. Expressions: Internet
6. Translations: Modern
7. Translations: Ancient
8. Derivations
9. Rhymes
10. Anagrams
11. Orthography
12. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

 

 

 

 

Note to the press & webmasters - this dictionary can be linked, indexed, or referred to using the following non-English expressions:
woordeboek, fjalor, ‏معجم, ‏قاموس, diccionariu, речник, diccionari, diksyonario, diksinario, 字典, gérlyver, slovník, ordbog, woordenboek, shimiyuc p'anca, orðabók, orðbók, dictionnaire, wurdboek, wörterbuch, λεξικό, אוצר מילים, szótár, uqausiit tukingit, dizionario, 字引 , じい, じびき, じて", ディクショナリー , じり", じしょ, '"かい, ディクショナリ , 사 , dizionari, recnik, fockleyr, dikshonario, słownik, dicionário, dicţionar, dicziunari, словарь, lolomi fefiloi, foclair, abardair, faclair, briathrachan, pukuntau, leksikon, rečnik, vocabbulariu, diccionario, sí-chazamagâma, ordbok, lexikon, พจนานุกรม, sözlük, ansiklopedik sözlük, словник, довідник, có tính chất sách vở, geirlyfr, geiriadur, for dictionary;
definisie, qartësi, përcaktim, saktësi, ‏الوضوحية في الشيء, ‏حد, ‏تحديد, ‏تعريف, ‏التحديد, ‏الإيضاحية, яснота, сила, очертания, дефиниция, 定義 , 定义, definice, deskriptordefinition, definitie, määritelmä, définition, ορισμός, "'"ר", "'בל", meghatározás, definíció, definizione, 確定 , ディーゼル電気車 , デ'ドロ酢酸 , デフィニション , ディフィニション , ていぎ, かくてい, 의, geyrid, meenaghey, keeayllaght, baght, definishon, definição, definiţie, determinare, definire, определение, definicija, definición, definition, açıklama, belirleme, belirtme, kesinleştirme, tanım, tarif, seçiklik, tanımlama, чіткість, тлумачення, виразність, визначення, дефініція, ясність, чітка чутність, sự định rõ, sự định nghĩa, lời định nghĩa sự định, diffiniad, darnodiad, for definition;
vertaling, transferim, transmetim, ‏ترجمة من لغة أجنبية للغة الأم, ‏ترجمة, ‏إفتتان, транслация, огъване, превод, предаване, поддаване, тълкуване, превеждане, 翻译, překlad, oversættelse, translatie, taajuusmuutos, translaatio, traduction, oersetting, Übersetzung, μετάφραση, תור'מ ות, תר'ום, "עתק", "עתק, fordítás, traduzione, 翻訳 , へい"ういどう, やくしょ, やくしゅつ, "うどく, ほ"やく, トランスレーション , やくじゅつ, ほ"やくしょ, 번역, tradukshon, tradução, translaţie, tãlmãcire, traducere, сдвиг, трансляция, перемещение, перевод, tumačenje, traducción, översättning, tercüme, процес перекладу, переклад, пояснення, переміщення, sự dịch, sự biến th nh sự giải thích, trosiad, for translation;
Albaans, Albanies, Albaniese taal, shqip, ‏الألبانية, ‏الألباني, албанец, албански език, албански, Albanyano, 阿"巴尼亚语, 阿爾巴尼亞人 , albánský, Albanees, albanskt, albanialainen, Albanais, Albaneesk, albaner, αλβανικόσ, Αλβανός, αλβανόσ, arbnisht, arbërisht, albán, albanskur, albanska, AlbÚinis, albanese, 알"니아, Albaneagh, albanês, arnãut, albanez, arnãuţesc, албанский, Alapania, albanski, albanac, albanés, alban, Arnavut, албанський, албанка, албанець, for Albanian;
Bulgaars, Bulgaar, bulgr, ‏البلغارية, ‏بلغاري, Búlgaru, български, български език, българин, Bulgaryan, 保 利亚, bulharský, bulgarer, bulgarskt, bulgarialainen, Bulgaarsk, bulgare, 'ούλγαρος, bullgar, bolgár, bulgaro, 불가리아, Bulgeyragh, Bulgeyrish, Bułgar, болгарский, болгарин, bugarski jezik, bugarski, bugarka, bugarin, búlgaro, bulgar, bulgaristan ile ilgili, болгарський, người Bun-ga-ri tiếng Bun-ga-ri, for Bulgarian;
Sjinees, Chinees, kinez, ‏الصينية, ‏لغة الصين, ‏صيني, ‏الصيني أحد أبناء الصين, Chinu, китайски, Ininsik, 汉语, 中 , 漢 , 中國 , èínský, èínština, èíòan, kineser, kinesiskt, kinverskur, kiinalainen, Chinois, Sineesk, Chinesisch, Κινέζος, κινέζικα, κινέζικοσ, κινέζοσ, σινικόσ, kínai, Kínverji, Sínis, cinese, チフス菌 , チャイニーズ , 중국, Cina, Sheenish, Sheenagh, Hainamana, chines, Chińczyk, chinês, chinés, chinezesc, chinezeşte, chinezã, chinez, китайский, китаец, Saina, kineski jezik, kineski, chino, snesi, sneysi, kinesisk, çinli, çince, çin ile ilgili, çin, китаянка, китайська мова, китайський, кита"ць, for Chinese;
Farsi, Parsi, persiskt, Fasi, for Farsi;
Duits, Duitser, Duitse taal, Germaan, gjerman, ‏ضرب من الرقص, ‏جرماني, ‏المانية, ‏الماني, ‏اللغة الألمانية, роден, германски, немски език, немски, немец, готически, германец, 德語 , 德语, 德文 , 德國 , nìmecký, nìmec, tysker, Duitse, týskur, týskt, týskari, saksalainen, Allemand, Dútsk, Deutsche, Deutsch, "ερμανός, gjermanisht, 'רמ י, 'רמ ית, német, þjóðverji, þýskur, GearmÚnach, GearmÚinis, tedesco, ジプシー音楽 , ジャーマン , 독일, todesch, Germaanagh, Garmane, Germaanish, Carmane, aleman, Niemiec, niemiecki, alemão, alemand, neamţ, немецкий, Siamani, germanski, alemán, Tudesku, Doysri, mjeremani, mdachi, sí-Jalimáne, tysk, เยอรมัน, าษาเยอรมัน, Alman, німкеня, німецький, німець, $sisters german$ chị em ruột, $cousin german$ anh chị em con chú bác ruột, sister, Almaenwr, isiJalimane, iliJalimane, iJalimane, for German;
Grieks, Griek, ‏الإغريقي, ‏يوناني, ‏اللغة اليونانية, Griegu, гръцки език, гръцки, грък, Griyego, 希臘語 , 希腊语, řecký, řeètina, řek, græker, grikst, kreikkalainen, grec, Gryk, Gryksk, Gryks, grieche, ελληνικόσ, 'Ελληνας, יו ית, יו י, görög, Grikki, greco, ギリシア語 , ギリシア", 그리스, Greagish, Greagagh, grego, grèc, greacã, греческий, Eleni, grk, grčki jezik, grčki, griego, grek, Yunanli, yunanlı, yunanca, yunan, Rumca, yunanistan'a ait, rum, грек, гречанка, грецька мова, грецький, kẻ cắp b gi gặp nhau, quân bạc bịp tôi không thể hiểu được điều đó thật l kỳ phùng địch thủ, người Hy-lạp tiếng Hy-lạp kẻ bịp bợm, kẻ lừa đảo, Groegwr, for Greek;
Italianer, Italiaans, Italiaan, ‏شخص إيطالي, ‏اللغة الإيطالية, ‏الإيطالي, ‏إيطالي, Italianu, италиански език, италиански, италианец, Italyano, 意大利 , 意大利語 , 意大利语, italština, italský, ital, italiener, italienskt, italialainen, Italien, Italjaansk, italienisch, Ιταλός, italisht, איטלקי, איטלקית, olasz, Ítali, IodÚilis, italiano, 이탈리아, Iddaalish, Włoch, italianã, italienesc, italieneşte, italian, итальянский язык, итальянский, итальянец, Italia, italijanski, italijanski jezik, italijan, sí-Taliyáne, italienare, italiensk, italienska, เกี่ยวกับอิตาลี, ชาวอิตาลี, าษาอิตาลี, italyanca, italyan, італі"ць, італійська мова, італійський, італійка, for Italian;
gjuha e popullsisë së ishullit men, manský, manština, manx, mann-szigeti nyelv, Gaelgagh, Yn Ghaelg, Manninish, Manninagh, язык жителей о-ва мэн, с о-ва мэн, s ostrva mana, los habitantes de la isla de man, lengua de la isla de man, de la isla de man, från ön man, man dili, man adası, менський діалект, менський, for manx;
Portugees, portugez, portugalisht, ‏اللغة البرتغالية, ‏البرتغالية, ‏البرتغالي, португалски език, португалски, португалец, Potuges, 葡萄牙语, 葡萄牙人 , 葡萄牙語 , portugalský, portugiser, portugisiskt, portugalilainen, portugais, Portugeesk, portugiesisch, πορτογάλοσ, ορτογάλος, portugál, Portaingéilis, portoghese, ポルトガル語 , ポルトガル", 포르투갈, Portiugish, Portiugagh, portugues, Portugalczyk, português, portughez, португальский, portugalski jezik, portugalski, portugalac, portugués, Mreno, si-Putúkezi, portugis, portekiz, Portekízlí, portekizli, portekizce, португальська мова, португальський, португалець, người B"-đ o-nha tiếng B"-đ o-nha, for Portuguese;
Roemeen, rumun, Rumanu, румънски език, румънски, румънец, Romanyan, 罗马尼亚语, rumunský, rumunština, rumæner, Roemeens, rumenskt, romanialainen, roumain, Roemeensk, rumäne, ρουμανόσ, Ρουμάνος, román, rumeno, 루마니아, Roomainagh, romeno, romanés, român, румын, румынский, rumunski, rumunski jezik, rumano, rumänsk, румунська мова, румун, румунський, румунка, for Romanian;
塞爾維亞克羅地亞語 , 塞"维亚-克罗地亚语, serbokroatisch, 세르보크로아티아, servo-croata, sârbo-croat, srpsko-hrvatski, srpsko-hrvatski jezik, serbokroatiska, serbokroatisk, เกี่ยวกับ าษาเซอร์เบียและโครเอเชีย, าษาหลักของชาวเซอร์เบียและโครเอเชีย, for Serbo-Croatian;
Spaans, Spaanse taal, spanjoll, ‏اللغة الأسبانية, ‏الأسبانية, ‏أسباني, испански език, испански, espanyoles, Espanyol, 西班牙语, 西班牙文 , 西班牙語 , španìlský, španìlština, spanskt, espanjalainen, espagnol, Spaansk, spanisch, ισπανικά, ισπανικόσ, ισπανοί, karaiñe'êmegua, ספר"ית, ספר"י, spanyol, SpÚinnis, spagnolo, スペイン語 , スパイ罪 , スペイン", スパニッシュ , 스페인, Spaainagh, Spaainish, spañó, espanhol, espanhòl, spaniolesc, spanioleşte, spaniol, испанский, Sipaniolo, španski jezik, španski, español, spanska språk, spansk, ispanyollar, ispanyolca, ispanyol, іспанська мова, іспанський, for Spanish;
Tailandes, 泰國 , 泰文 , 泰国, 泰 , thailænder, Thailander, Thai, Thais, thailendskt, thaimaalainen, Thaïlandais, thailändisch, Thailänder, Ταϊλανδός· Ταϊλανδέζος, tailandese, 泰語 , たい", 타이 말, tailandês, tailandés, thailändare, ที่เกี่ยวกับประเทศไทย, าษาไทย, เกี่ยวกับคนไทย, คนไทย, Taylandlı, Tayland Dili, Tayland, Tai Dili, Та"ць, Тайська Мова, Тайський, for Thai;
乌克兰, for Ukranian;
Vietnamees, vietnamez, vietnamisht, виетнамски език, виетнамски, Vietnamis, 越南語 , 越南 , 越南语, vietnamský, vietnamka, vietnamec, vietnamština, vietnameser, vjetmanskt, vietnamilainen, vietnamien, Fjetnameesk, vietnamese, vietnamesisch, Vietnamesin, 'ιετναμέζος, vietnami, vietnámi, ベトナ 人 , ベトナ じ", 트남, vietnamita, вьетнамский, vijetnamski jezik, vijetnamski, vijetnamac, vietnames, vietnam, vietnamlı, vietnam dili, в'"тнамець, в'"тнамський, người Việt nam tiếng Việt, for Vietnamese;