Onomatopoeia Definition
Onomatopoeia Definition
Onomatopoeia Definition
Onomatopoeia Definition
Onomatopoeia, pronounced on-uh-mat-uh–pee–uh, is defined as a word
which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It creates a sound effect that
mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and
interesting.
For instance, saying, “The gushing stream flows in the forest” is a more
meaningful description than just saying, “The stream flows in the forest.” The
reader is drawn to hear the sound of a “gushing stream,” which makes the
expression more effective.
This type of onomatopoeia, which we’ll call conventional onomatopoeia, uses words
whose own sound evokes the sound of real things. The word “meow,” which sounds just
like the sound a cat makes when it actually meows, is a classic example of conventional
onomatopoeia. This is by far the most common type of onomatopoeia.
In this rarer type of onomatopoeia, a word or series of words is used to imitate a real-
world sound, even though the words used don’t mimic that sound themselves. Perhaps
the most famous example of this type of onomatopoeia is Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The
Bells,” in which Poe repeats the word “bell” 62 times to evoke the sound of a bell ringing
and tolling, even though the word “bell” itself does not itself sound like a bell ringing.
Made-up words can fill the void when no word exists to sufficiently capture the nuances
of a real-world sound. For example, when James Joyce needed a word to convey the
sound of someone knocking on a door, he invented “tattarrattat.” Today, almost a
hundred years after he coined it in writing his novel Ulysses, “tattarrattat” has become a
legit word (it’s in the Oxford English Dictionary).
Similarly, words like growl, giggle, grunt, murmur, blurt, and chatter denote
different kinds of human voice sounds.
Function of Onomatopoeia
Generally, words are used to tell what is happening. Onomatopoeia, on the
other hand, helps readers to hear the sounds of the words they reflect. Hence,
the reader cannot help but enter the world created by the poet with the aid of
these words. The beauty of onomatopoeic words lies in the fact that they are
bound to have an effect on the readers’ senses, whether that effect is
understood or not. Moreover, a simple plain expression does not have the
same emphatic effect that conveys an idea powerfully to the readers. The use
of onomatopoeic words helps create emphasis.
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