onomatopoesy
onomatopoesy noun: the use of onomatopoeia.
Noun
onomatopoesy (countable and uncountable, plural onomatopoesies)
- The use of onomatopoeia.
- Another means is the imitation of sounds by the organ of speech, constituting onomatopoesy , e.g., the hissing of a stream, the roll of thunder, the tumult of a storm, whistling, etc.1892, Leonard Landois, William Stirling, A Text-book of Human Physiology, page 664
- It is to be remembered, too, in saying that the child imitates such familiar onomatopoesies as “bow-wow” (French “oua-oua.”), “tic-tic” (French “tic-tac”) from the nurse, that the nursery tradition of employing these sounds is probably the result of a respectful attention to the spontaneous namings...1893 July, Professor Sully, “A New Book on Infant Psychology”, in Journal of Education, volume 15, number 288, page 387
Examples of onomatopoesy in a sentence
- Because of this difference the onomatopoesy of the original has been lost and also some of the alliterative quality of Finnish poetry.1963, Ernest J. Moyne, Hiawatha and Kalevala:
- Even Hoxha's wife, Nexhmije (whose name is genuine onomatopoesy) , contributes by attacking the parasitic, opportunistic tendencies of Albanian youth.1968, Yorick Blumenfeld, Seesaw: Cultural Life in Eastern Europe, page 109:
- A little child is not content to call a cow, a cow; it is a moo-cow, and a dog is a bow-wow; but if onomatopoesy is a child-like quality, then our language itself is the kingdom of children.2004, Frederick Millet Salter, H. V. Weekes, The Art of Writing, page 114:
Forms of onomatopoesy
| plural | onomatopoesies |
|---|
Origin of onomatopoesy
From Ancient Greek ὀνοματοποιία (onomatopoiía, “the coining of a word in imitation of a sound”).
Questions about onomatopoesy
- What does onomatopoesy mean?
- Onomatopoesy means the use of onomatopoeia.
- How do you use onomatopoesy in a sentence?
- Because of this difference the onomatopoesy of the original has been lost and also some of the alliterative quality of Finnish poetry.
- What part of speech is onomatopoesy?
- Onomatopoesy is a noun.
- What is the plural of onomatopoesy?
- The plural of onomatopoesy is onomatopoesies.
Words near onomatopoesy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: onomatopoesy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “onomatopoesy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/onomatopoesy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.