onomatopoeia

English

WOTD - 10 April 2006    

Wikipedia

A sign in a shop window in Milan uses onomatopoeia.

Alternative forms

• onomatopœia

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ὀνοματοποιία (onomatopoiia, “the coining of a word in imitation of a sound”), from ονοματοποιέω (onomatopoieo, “to coin names”), from ὄνομα (onoma, “name”) + ποιέω (poieo, “to make, to do, to produce”).

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ˌɒnəˌmætəˈpiə/, SAMPA: /%Qn@%m{t@"pi@/
• (US) enPR: än'ə-măt'ə-pēʹə or än'ə-mät'ə-pēʹə, IPA: /ˌɑːnəˌmætəˈpiə/, /ˌɑːnəˌmɑːtəˈpiə/, SAMPA: /%A:n@%m{t@"pi@/, /%A:n@%mA:t@"pi@/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iə

Noun

onomatopoeia (countable and uncountable; plural onomatopoeias or onomatopoeiae)

1. (uncountable) The property of a word of sounding like what it represents.
2. (countable) A word which has the property of onomatopoeia, such as "gurgle" or "hiss".
3. (uncountable, rhetoric) The use of language whose sound imitates that which it names.

Synonyms

• imitative harmony

Related terms

• onomatope
• onomatopoeic
• onomatopoetic

Translations

property

Albanian: onomatope (sq) Arabic: محاكاة صوتية (ar) (muHākāa Sawtiyya) f. Bulgarian: ономатопея (bg) (onomatopeja) f. Catalan: onomatopeia  (ca) f. Chinese: Mandarin: 象聲 (cmn), 象声 (cmn) (xiàngshēng), 擬聲 (cmn), 拟声 (cmn) (nǐshēng) Czech: onomatopoeia (cs) f. Finnish: onomatopoeettisuus (fi), onomatopoesia (fi) French: onomatopée (fr) f. German: Onomatopoese (de) f., Onomatopöie (de) f., Lautmalerei (de), Schallnachahmung (de) f.

Greek: ονοματοποιία (el) (onomatopoiía) f. Icelandic: hljóðgerving (is) f. Japanese: 擬音 (ja) (ぎおん, gion), 擬声 (ja) (ぎせい, gisei) Macedonian: ономатопеја (mk) (onomatopéja) f., подражавање (mk) (podražávanje) n. Polish: onomatopeja (pl) f. Portuguese: onomatopeia (pt) f. Russian: звукоподражание (ru) (zvukopodražánije) n., ономатопея (ru) (onomatopéja) f. Spanish: onomatopeya (es) f. Swedish: onomatopoetikon (sv)

word with this property

Albanian: onomatopeik (sq) Bosnian: onomatopeja (bs) f. Bulgarian: ономатопея (bg) f. Catalan: onomatopeia  (ca) f. Chinese: Mandarin: 象聲詞 (cmn), 象声词 (cmn) (xiàngshēngcí), 擬聲語 (cmn), 拟声语 (cmn) (nǐshēngyǔ) Danish: onomatopoietikon (da), lydord (da) Dutch: onomatopee (nl) f., klanknabootsing (nl) f. Faroese: ljóðorð (fo) n. Finnish: onomatopoeettinen sana (fi) French: onomatopée (fr) f. German: Onomatopoese (de) f., Onomatopöie (de) f. Greek: ονοματοποιία (el) (onomatopoiía) f. Icelandic: hljóðlíkingarorð (is) n., hljóðgervingur (is) m.

Italian: onomatopea (it) Japanese: 擬音語 (ja) (ぎおんご, giongo), 擬声語 (ja) (ぎせいご, giseigo) Korean: 의성어 (ko) (eui-seong-eo) (擬聲語) Macedonian: ономатопеја (mk) (onomatopéja) f., подражавање (mk) (podražávanje) n. Norwegian: lydord (no), onomatopoetikon (no) Persian: نام‌آوا (namava) Polish: onomatopeja (pl) f. Portuguese: onomatopéia (pt) (Brazil), onomatopeia (pt) (Portugal) Romanian: onomatopee (ro) f. Russian: звукоподражание (ru) (zvukopodražánije) n., ономатопея (ru) (onomatopéja) f. Serbian: Cyrillic: ономатопеја f. Roman: onomatopeja f. Spanish: onomatopeya (es)

See also

• Wiktionary's category of onomatopoeias