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Webster 1913 Edition
Onomatopoeia
Onˊo-matˊo-poe′ia
,Noun.
[L., fr. Gr. [GREEK];
ὄνομα
, ὀνόματος
, a name + ποιεῖν
to make.] (Philol.)
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.
Definition 2025
onomatopoeia
onomatopoeia
See also: onomatopoeïa and onomatopœia
English
A sign in a shop window in Milan uses onomatopoeia.
Alternative forms
Noun
onomatopoeia (countable and uncountable, plural onomatopoeias or onomatopoeiae)
- (uncountable) The property of a word of sounding like what it represents.
- 1553, Thomas Wilson, Desiderius Erasmus, Arte of Rhetorique, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1909:
- A woorde making called of the Grecians Onomatapoia, is when wee make wordes of our owne minde, such as bee derived from the nature of things.
-
- (countable) A word that sounds like what it represents, such as "gurgle" or "hiss".
- (uncountable, rhetoric) The use of language whose sound imitates that which it names.
Synonyms
- echoism
- imitative harmony
- mimesis
- sound symbolism
Related terms
Translations
property of a word of sounding like what it represents
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word that sounds like what it represents
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See also
- Wiktionary's category of English onomatopoeias
Latin
Alternative forms
Etymology
From the Ancient Greek ὀνομᾰτοποιῐ́ᾱ (onomatopoiíā).
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /o.no.ma.toˈpoe̯.i.a/, [ɔ.nɔ.ma.tɔˈpoe̯.i.a]
Noun
onomatopoeia f (genitive onomatopoeiae); first declension
- (rhetoric) onomatopoeia (the forming of a word to resemble in sound the thing that it signifies)
Declension
First declension.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | onomatopoeia | onomatopoeiae |
| genitive | onomatopoeiae | onomatopoeiārum |
| dative | onomatopoeiae | onomatopoeiīs |
| accusative | onomatopoeiam | onomatopoeiās |
| ablative | onomatopoeiā | onomatopoeiīs |
| vocative | onomatopoeia | onomatopoeiae |
Descendants
- French: onomatopée
References
- ŏnŏmătŏpoeïa in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- Félix Gaffiot (1934), “ŏnŏmătŏpœĭa”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette, page 1,080/2.
- onomatopoeia in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “onomatopoeia” on page 1,250/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)