ONOMATOPOEIA

onomatopoeia

(noun) using words that imitate the sound they denote

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

onomatopoeia (countable and uncountable, plural onomatopoeias or onomatopoeiae)

(uncountable) The property of a word of sounding like what it represents.

(countable) A word that sounds like what it represents, such as "gurgle" or "hiss".

(countable) A word that appropriates a sound for another sensation or a perceived nature, such as "thud", "beep", or "meow"; an ideophone, phenomime.

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

Synonyms

• echoism

• imitative harmony

• mimesis

• sound symbolism

Source: Wiktionary

On`o*mat`o*poe"ia, n. Etym: [L., fr. Gr. (Philol.)

Definition: 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.

Note: It has been maintained by some philologist that all primary words, especially names, were formed by imitation of natural sounds.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition