While I am writing down some good examples of onomatopoeia, the keyboard of my computer is going click click click, and my fingers are going tap tap tap! Any idea what I am talking about?..
“Crack An Egg” by Denise Rodgers
“Crack an egg.
Stir the butter.
Break the yolk.
Make it flutter.
Stoke the heat.
Hear it sizzle.
Shake the salt,
Just a drizzle.
Flip it over,
Just like that.
Press it down.
Squeeze it flat.
Pop the toast.
Spread jam thin.
Say the word.
Breakfast’s in.”
Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Bells” is a splendid example of onomatopoeia. In the poem, the objects and actions are named or denoted by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with them. This is what forms the base of onomatopoeia. In short, onomatopoeia is the formation of a word or a group of words that imitate the sound they denote. Check out the following onomatopoeia examples, and you will get the idea.
Good Onomatopoeic Words
| Arf | Bah | Bam | Boo |
| Eek | Moo | Pow | Yap |
| Yuk | Zap | Zip | Ahem |
| Argh | Bang | Bash | Bawl |
| Beep | Biff | Blab | Bong |
| Bonk | Boom | Brrr | Burp |
| Buzz | Ding | Drip | Fizz |
| Glug | Gush | Hiss | Honk |
| Hoot | Howl | Phew | Ping |
| Plop | Poof | Puff | Purr |
| Ring | Snap | Snip | Thud |
| Ting | Toot | Wham | Yelp |
| Zing | Zoom | Achoo | Belch |
| Blare | Bloop | Blurt | Boing |
| Boink | Cheep | Chirp | Chomp |
| Clack | Clang | Clank | Clash |
| Click | Clink | Cluck | Clunk |
| Cough | Creak | Croak | Flick |
| Flush | Groan | Grunt | Munch |
| Ouch! | Plink | Pluck | Quack |
| Shush | Slash | Smack | Snarl |
| Sniff | Snore | Snort | Splat |
| Swish | Twang | Tweet | Whack |
| Whir | Whizz | Yikes | Cackle |
| Crunch | Guffaw | Jangle | Jingle |
| Mumble | Nibble | Rattle | Rumble |
| Rustle | Sizzle | Splosh | Clout |
| Squawk | Squeak | Squish | Swoosh |
| Tinkle | Whoosh | Atishoo | Boohoo |
| Chatter | Chortle | Clatter | Crackle |
| Flutter | Screech | Squelch | Tick-tock |
| Trickle | Tut-tut | Whallop | Kerplunk |
| Choo-choo | Clip clop | Ding dong | Ker-ching |
| Tick-tock | Lickety-wop | Tsk, tsk, tsk | Clippety-clop |
| Pitter-patter | Varoom | Vroom | Cock-a-doodle-doo |
Animal Onomatopoeia
Other great examples of onomatopoeia are animal sounds. See if you are familiar with them.
| • Bee – buzz | • Pig-oink |
| • Ass – bray | • Cock – crow |
| • Doves – coo | • Lion – roar |
| • Raven – croak | • Sheep – baa |
| • Chick – peep | • Flies – buzz |
| • Frog – croak | • Goat – bleat |
| • Hen – cluck | • Pig – squeal |
| • Apes – gibber | • Bull – bellow |
| • Calve – bleat | • Ferret – dook |
| • Hare – squeak | • Hyena – laugh |
| • Jackal – howl | • Jay – chatter |
| • Mice – squeak | • Owl – screech |
| • Stag – bellow | • Whale – sings |
| • Zebra – click | • Bear – growl |
| • Cow – moo | • Falcon – chant |
| • Horse – whinny | • Moose – bellow |
| • Penguin – honk | • Walrus – groan |
| • Cuckoo – cuckoo | • Dolphin – click |
| • Eagles – screech | • Giraffe – bleat |
| • Monkey – gibber | • Ostrich – bleep |
| • Turkey – gobble | • Fox – yelp, bark |
| • Magpie – chatter | • Vulture – scream |
| • Wolf – howl | • Badgers – growl |
| • Raccoon – chitter | • Coyote – yelp |
| • Dingo – bark | • Elephant – trumpet |
| • Grasshopper – chirp | • Mosquitoes – whine |
| • Cat – meow, mew, purr | • Fish – glub, blub, glug |
| • Alligators – hiss, grunt | • Donkey – heehaw |
| • Dog – bark, bow-wow, woof | • Swallow – twit and squeal |
| • Rooster – cock-a-doodle-doo | • Bird – chirrup, chirp, tweet |
| • Dinosaur – grr, growl, screech | • Goose – cackle, hiss, honk, quack |
Some Examples of Onomatopoeia in Sentences
#1. I find piglets really cute when they squeal.
#2. Yikes! Damn the banana peel!
#3. Last night I heard a loud thud outside my window.
#4. There is nothing more calming than the rustling of leaves, the chirping of birds, and the whoosh of the wind in the early morning hours.
#5. In a fit of annoyance he said, “Tut-tut, we have worse problems ahead of us now!”
#6. Our feet creaked and crackled as we stepped over the bare planking.
#7. Within minutes the football stadium got filled with a high-pitched screech, as the players started showing up one by one.
#8. The tinkling of the doorbell tells us we have a customer.
#9. “Shush! This is a library not your college cafeteria,” said the annoyed librarian at last.
#10. I was happily munching my burger, when all of a sudden, I heard a boom some 50 yards away from where I stood.
Onomatopoeia in Poems
“The Pit Bull” by D. Alsup
Never to growl again,
At us kids in play,
The shriek, squeal, and scream of the English bulldog,
As he pinned him that day,
Crunch,
His massive jaws, locked its teeth
Around it’s now,
Blood oozing down,
Throat and head,
Grunting, wailing, plunk,
Kerplunk,
Oh man,
Is he dead?
That was enough,
To make us stay away,
From all canine for a while,
When we’re ready,
We’ll enjoy teasing the neighbors poodles instead.
“Cynthia in the Snow” by Gwendolyn Brooks
It sushes. It hushes
The loudness in the road.
It flitter-twitters,
And laughs away from me.
It laughs a lovely whiteness,
And whitely whirs away,
To be,
Somewhere else,
Still white as milk or shirts.
So beautiful it hurts.
“The Rusty Spigot” by Eve Merriam
The rusty spigot
sputters,
utters
a splutter,
spatters a smattering of drops,
gashes wider;
slash
splatters
scatters
spurts
finally stops sputtering
and plash!
gushes rushes splashes
clear water dashes.
Now that you have some awesome examples of onomatopoeia, why don’t you start “onomatopoesing” with your friends, and have fun with sounds. This is me signing off… Whoosh!
