onomatopoeia

Meaning

Noun

• The property of a word of sounding like what it represents.
• A word that sounds like what it represents, such as "gurgle," "stutter," or "hiss".
• The use of language whose sound imitates that which it names.

Related

Similar words

• echoism
• imitative harmony
• mimesis
• sound symbolism

Origin

• Borrowed from Ancient Greek ὀνοματοποιία ("the coining of a word in imitation of a sound"), from ὀνοματοποιέω, from ὄνομα + ποιέω.