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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 2024


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)

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

Synonyms

Related terms

Translations

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

  1. (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

References