Words / O / General

onomatopoeia

noun/ˌɒnəˌmatəˈpiːə/

B2CEFR level
55/100Rarity: uncommon
TechnicalRegister

The formation of a word that imitates the natural sound it denotes.

Words like 'buzz', 'hiss' and 'clang' are classic examples of onomatopoeia.

Similar: imitation, echoism

Origin: From Greek onoma 'name' + poiein 'to make'.

Topic: sound words in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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