List of onomatopoeias
Appearance
This is a list of onomatopoeias, i.e. words that imitate, resemble or suggest the source of the sound that they describe. For more information, see the linked articles.
Human vocal sounds
Sounds made by human actions
- Knock
- Smack
- Thump
- Screech
Words for people named after sounds
- Barbarian, a person perceived to be uncivilized; derived from a Greek word imitating babbling
- Flibbertigibbet, a flighty or talkative person; derived from a meaningless representation of chattering
- Mleccha, ancient Indian word for a foreigner; derived from a word for indistinct speech
Sounds made by devices or other objects
- Awooga, or Aooga
- Bang, the sound of an explosion or a gunshot
- Beep, a high-pitched signal
- Beep, beep, 1929 word for a car horn
- Ding ding, the sound of a ringing bell
- Fizz, sound of effervescence
- Flutter, sound of rapid motion, e.g. aeroelastic flutter
- Honk, sound of a car horn; also used for the call of a goose
- Oom-pah, the rhythmical sound of a deep brass instrument in a band
- Ping
- Plop
- Slosh
- Splash, sound of water upon disturbance
- Squish
- Swish
- Tick tick tick, sound of a timer
- Tick tock, sound of a clock
- Vroom, sound of an engine revving up
- Whoosh, sound of the wind
- Zap, sound of an electrostatic discharge
Things named after sounds
- Choo Choo, childish word for a train, after the sound of a locomotive whistle or the pulsing emittance of steam from a steam locomotive as it moves along
- Flip-flops
- Tuk-tuk, word for auto rickshaw in parts of Asia and Africa
Animal and bird names
- Aye-aye
- Bobolink
- Chachalaca
- Chiffchaff
- Cuckoo
- Dik-dik
- Dodo
- Hoopoe
- Kea
- Killdeer
- Mopoke, morepork or boobook owl
- Pobblebonk
- Weero
- Eastern whip-poor-will
- Mexican whip-poor-will
- Zyzzyx, a genus of sand wasp
Animal and bird noises
For sounds listed by the name of the animal, see List of animal sounds.
English words for animal noises include:
- Bark, call of a dog
- Bleat, call of a sheep
- Chirp, bird call
- Chirp, sound made by rubbing together feet or other body parts, e.g. by a cicada
- Growling, low, guttural vocalization produced by predatory animals
- Hiss, sound made by a snake
- Hoot, call of an owl
- Meow, cry of a cat
- Moo, sound of a cow
- Purr, a tonal buzzing sound made by all members of the cat family
- Quack, call of a duck
- Ribbit, sound of some Pacific tree frogs or bullfrogs
- Roar, deep, bellowing outburst made by various animals
- Screech, high-pitched strident or piercing sound, as made by a screech owl
Music groups or terms
- Bebop, a style of jazz
- Ratatat, a New York City experimental electronic rock duo
- Wah-wah, the sound of altering the resonance of musical notes to extend expressiveness
- Doof doof, Australian slang term describes electronic music heard at raves
- Wham! Wham! was a 1980s English musical duo formed by members George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley
Works and characters named after sounds
- "Boum !", a song
- Cock a doodle doo, a nursery rhyme about a cockerel
- Kachi-kachi Yama, a Japanese folktale, named for the crackling of a fire
- Snap, Crackle and Pop, advertising mascots for branded cereal
- Clank, from the famous video game series "Ratchet & Clank"
Sounds in fiction
- Bamf, the sound Nightcrawler makes when teleporting
- Snikt, the sound of Wolverine's claws being extended
- Vworp, the sound the TARDIS makes when it materializes
See also
- "The Bells", a heavily onomatopoeic poem
- Bling-bling, an ideophone for ostentatious accessories
- Cross-linguistic onomatopoeias
References