Onomatopoeia. First of all, what is it?
Well, onomatopoeia is the creation of words that imitate natural sounds, like for example the word ‘hiss’ which both imitates and has the meaning of the sound of a snake.
There are lots of words like this, so it’s impossible to cover them all in one post, but let’s at least have a look at some of them.
But before we do, maybe you prefer to watch a video? If so, here it is:
Table of Contents
Examples of Onomatopoeia
Let’s now have a look at some examples of onomatopoeia. I’m going to divide the words into a couple of groups:
Birds
Let me start with words that imitate sounds produced by birds:
| the sound produced by: | |
| caw | a crow or raven |
| cheep | a young bird |
| cluck | a hen |
| tweet | a small bird |
| quack | a duck |
Other Animals
And now some words imitating sounds produced by other animals:
| the sound produced by: | |
| baa | a sheep |
| roar | a lion |
| neigh | a horse |
| oink | a pig |
| croak | a frog |
| mew | a cat |
| moo | a cow |
| purr | a contented cat |
Objects
A lot of objects produce sounds as well. Here are some examples of onomatopoeic words:
| the sound produced by: | |
| ding-dong | a large bell |
| twang | a plucked violin string |
| clang | iron gates closing |
| bang | a gun |
| vroom | an engine running at high speed |
| tick-tock | a clock |
| beep | an electronic device |
| clack | two objects hitting sharply together |
| clip-clop | a horse’s hoofs on a hard surface |
Other Examples of Onomatopoeia
Finally, have a look at some other examples of onomatopoeia that don’t fit so well in any of the other categories, but are still worth mentioning:
| the sound produced by: | |
| crackle | logs in the fire |
| gurgle | boiling or bubbling water |
| ping | a spoon tapping an empty wine glass |
| pitter-patter | the rain |
| clap | hands struck together |
| gargle | someone rinsing their mouth or throat |
| sizzle | frying fat |
| screech | a car braking at speed |
And there are hundreds of other examples of onomatopoeia like this. Maybe you know some yourself?