Onomatopoeia – Words That Imitate Sounds

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:

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?