English Explanatory Dictionary

onomatopoeia

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The property of a word that sounds like what it represents.
  2. A word that sounds like what it represents, such as "gurgle", "stutter", or "hiss".
  3. A word that appropriates a sound for another sensation or a perceived nature, such as "thud", "beep", or "meow"; an ideophone, phenomime.
  4. The use of language whose sound imitates that which it names.

Pronunciation

/ˌɒnəˌmætəˈpiːə/ /ˌɒnəˌmɛtəˈpæɪə/ än'ə-măt'ə-pēʹə or än'ə-mät'ə-pēʹə /ˌɑnəˌmætəˈpiːə/ /ˌɑnəˌmɑtəˈpiːə/ /ˌɑnəˌmɑnəˈpiːə/ en-us-onomatopoeia.ogg en-au-onomatopoeia.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-onomatopoeia.wav /ɔnomæʈoˈpijɑ/

Word forms

onomatopoeia onomatopoeias onomatopoeiae onomatopy onomatopœia onomatopeia

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ Proto-Hellenic *ónomə Ancient Greek ὄνομᾰ (ónomă) Proto-Indo-European *kʷey-der. Proto-Hellenic *kʷoiwéyō Ancient Greek ποιέω (poiéō) Ancient Greek ὀνομᾰτοποιός (onomătopoiós) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek ὀνομᾰτοποιῐ́ᾱ (onomătopoiĭ́ā)der. Latin onomatopoeïabor. English onomatopoeia Borrowed from Latin onomatopoeïa, from Ancient Greek ὀνοματοποιία (onomatopoiía, “the coining of a word in imitation of a sound”), from ὀνοματοποιέω (onomatopoiéō, “to coin names”), from ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”) + ποιέω (poiéō, “to make, to do, to produce”). By surface analysis, onomato- + -poeia.

Synonyms

onomatope phonomime echoism imitative harmony mimesis phonomimesis sound symbolism

Related words

onomatope onomatopoeial onomatopoeian onomatopoeic onomatopoeious onomatopoetic onomatopoetical onomatopoetically ideophone Wiktionary's category of English onomatopoeias

Derived words

onomatopoetry

Translations

Albanian: onomatope Armenian: բնաձայնություն Azerbaijani: təqlidi söz Bulgarian: ономатопея Catalan: onomatopeia Chinese Mandarin: 象聲詞 /象声词 Chinese Mandarin: 擬聲詞 /拟声词 Chinese Mandarin: 擬聲語 /拟声语 Chinese Mandarin: 狀聲詞 /状声词 Czech: zvukomalebné slovo Czech: onomatopoion Danish: lydord Danish: onomatopoietikon Dutch: onomatopee Dutch: klanknabootsing Esperanto: onomatopeo Esperanto: sonimito Estonian: kõlasõna Faroese: ljóðorð Finnish: onomatopoeettinen sana French: onomatopée Galician: onomatopeia German: lautmalerisches Wort German: lautmalendes Wort German: lautnachahmendes Wort German: klangnachahmendes Wort German: onomatopoetisches Wort German: Klangwort German: Schallwort German: Onomatopoetikum Greek: ονοματοποιία Hindi: स्वनानुकरणात्मक Hindi: अनुकरण Hungarian: hangutánzó-hangulatfestő/hangfestő szó Icelandic: hljóðlíkingarorð Icelandic: hljóðgervingur Italian: onomatopea Japanese: 擬音語 Japanese: 擬声語 Japanese: 擬態語 Japanese: オノマトペ Korean: 의성어 Latin: onomatopoēticum Latin: vocābulum onomatopoēticum Macedonian: ономатопе́ја Macedonian: подражавање Māori: kupu ororite Māori: kupu pakoire oro Norwegian: lydord Norwegian: onomatopoetikon Persian: نامآوا Polish: onomatopeja Polish: wyraz dźwiękonaśladowczy Portuguese: onomatopeia Punjabi: صوت Punjabi: ਸੌਤ Romanian: onomatopee Russian: звукоподража́ние Russian: ономатопе́я Serbo-Croatian: ономатопе́ја Serbo-Croatian: onomatopéja Shuar: métek-chícham Spanish: onomatopeya Tagalog: sintunog Tagalog: onomatopeya Turkish: onomatope Turkish: yansıma sözcük Ukrainian: звуконаслі́дування Ukrainian: ономатопе́я Vietnamese: từ tượng thanh
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on O Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary