Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A word formed to resemble the sound made by the things signified.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An imitative word; an onomatopoetic word.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun linguistics A word formed by
onomatopoeia ormimesis
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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And in the minds of the colored population the American steamer is so intimately associated with the idea of those great tin cans in which food - stuffs are brought from the United States, that the onomatope applied to the can, because of the sound outgiven by it when tapped, -- _bom!
Two Years in the French West Indies Lafcadio Hearn 1877
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Like Pope, this American poet loved onomatope and imitative verse, and the last line is a word-picture of home-sick weariness.
The Story of the Hymns and Tunes Theron Brown 1873
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_Hüt_, as an unsuccessful imitation of the locomotive-whistle by my boy of two and a half years, seems also noteworthy as an onomatope independently invented, because it was used daily for months in the same way merely to designate the whistle.
The Mind of the Child, Part II The Development of the Intellect, International Education Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX. William T. Preyer 1869
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We will not mention her last, for it is an enormous and unpronounceable onomatope.
Petty Troubles of Married Life, Complete Honor�� de Balzac 1824
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We will not mention her last, for it is an enormous and unpronounceable onomatope.
Analytical Studies Honor�� de Balzac 1824
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We will not mention her last, for it is an enormous and unpronounceable onomatope.
Petty Troubles of Married Life Honor�� de Balzac 1824
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(patois for the French _toc_) is an onomatope for the sound of knocking at a door.
Two Years in the French West Indies Lafcadio Hearn 1877
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A recent praiseworthy study of onomatopes in the Japanese language has been made by Mr. Aston, who defines an onomatope as "the artistic representation of an inarticulate sound or noise by means of an articulate sound" (394. 333
The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day Alexander F. Chamberlain
mialuthien commented on the word onomatope
onomatope – an onomatopoeic word
July 26, 2008
qms commented on the word onomatope
I wish that we had an onamatope
To capture the gait of the antelope.
It’s a crying shame
We used up the name.
It’s wasted completely on cantaloupe.
January 26, 2015