Lexic.us

Definition of Onomatopoeia

1. Noun. Using words that imitate the sound they denote.

Definition of Onomatopoeia

1. Noun. The property of a word of sounding like what it represents. ¹

2. Noun. A word that sounds like what it represents, such as "gurgle" or "hiss". ¹

3. Noun. (uncountable rhetoric) The use of language whose sound imitates that which it names. ¹

4. Noun. (alternative spelling of onomatopoeia) ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Onomatopoeia

1. [n -S]

Medical Definition of Onomatopoeia

1. The formation of words in imitation of sounds; a figure of speech in which the sound of a word is imitative of the sound of the thing which the word represents; as, the buzz of bees; the hiss of a goose; the crackle of fire. It has been maintained by some philologist that all primary words, especially names, were formed by imitation of natural sounds. Origin: L, fr. Gr., a name + to make. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Onomatopoeia

Literary usage of Onomatopoeia

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Text-book for the Study of Poetry by Francis M. Connell (1913)
"onomatopoeia. — onomatopoeia is the resemblance between the sound of words ... (6) Suggestive onomatopoeia.—when the sound of vowels and consonants does not ..."

2. Horæ Hellenicæ: Essays and Discussion on Some Important Points of Greek by John Stuart Blackie (1874)
"The word onomatopoeia, like some other technical terms of the old grammarians, is not particularly happy, for it means only and generally word-making, ..."

3. Poetry as a Representative Art: An Essay in Comparative Aesthetics by George Lansing Raymond (1899)
"... Apostrophe, Vision, Apophasis, Irony, Antithesis, Climax—Figures of Rhetoric necessitating Representative Language: onomatopoeia, Metonymy, Synecdoche, ..."

4. Language and the Study of Language: Twelve Lectures on the Principles of by William Dwight Whitney (1889)
"onomatopoeia the true source of first utterances. Its various modes and limitations. Its traces mainly obliterated. Remaining obscurities of the problem. ..."

Other Resources: