Still other imitate sounds human beings make that convey meaning, such as shush, pssst, brrrr, ahem, hmmm, pshaw, and phew.
Many others imitate sounds in nature, such as crack, thud, clunk, pop, plop, and whoosh, or the sounds that objects make, such as the ding-dong of a bell the clackety-clack of a keyboard the tick-tock of a clock the bang or rat-a-tat-tat of a gun and the beep! of almost every dadblamed thing in this digitized age. Many imitate the sounds that animals make: the buzz of a bee the bowwow of a dog the croak of a frog the sibilant hiss of a snake and the lyrical cock-a-doodle-doo of a rooster. Today, the English language contains a vast number of onomatopoeic words, most of them short and vivid like the sounds they represent. If you also want the definition of these onomatopoeic words then simply click on the word to be taken to its definition.“The sound must seem an echo of the sense” proclaimed the 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope, providing us with a concise guideline for creating onomatopoeic words, ones formed in imitation of sound. Or, you can use the menu at the top of the page to link you to examples of onomatopoeia in letter ranges A-F, G-M, N-S, and T-Z. To use this website to search for examples of onomatopoeia scroll back to the top of the page click on a letter given on the right-hand search menu, if you click on 'A' it will take you to onomatopoeic words beginning with 'A'. There are many other examples of onomatopoeia found in kid's poetry, see if you can hear them next time you listen to a nursery rhyme. Old Macdonald (similarly, every "Moo Moo" and "Neigh Neigh" in this nursery rhyme exemplifies onomatopoeia)īoth of these poems use onomatopoeic representations of animal noises to entertain. Some examples of onomatopoeia poems for children are:īaa Baa Black Sheep (with every "Baa Baa" of the sheep onomatopoeia is used in this nusery rhyme) Onomatopoeic words produce strong images that can both delight and amuse kids when listening to their parents read poetry. Onomatopoeia in poems (more examples) Onomatopoeia in nursery rhymesĮxamples of onomatopoeia are also commonly found in children’s nursery rhymes. For example, in the last lines of Sir Alfred Tennyson's poem 'Come Down, O Maid', m and n sounds produce an atmosphere of murmuring insects: Onomatopoeia is also used by poets to convey their subject to the reader. you guessed it, another example of onomatopoeia Do you remember the old Knock-Knock jokes, even the name of this type of joke is another example of onomatopoeia.
Onomatopoeia can be used as a linguistic device in many types of writings including jokes. The adverb onomatopoeically is used in the sentence: "She lived her life onomatopoeically. The adjective onomatopoeic is used in the sentence: "Woof is an example of an onomatopoeic word." For example, in the sentence 'The poet Tennyson used onomatopoeia as a linguistic device' (see an example of Tennyson using onomatopoeia below). The word Onomatopoeia can also be used to describe the use of such words for rhetorical effect. For example, onomatopoeia is the hum of the bees, the pop of a balloon, or the tweet of a bird. Onomatopoeia is the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named.