the fact of words containing sounds similar to the noises they describe, for example hiss; the use of words like this in a piece of writingWordfinderimagealliteration,euphemism,figure of speech,hyperbole,image,litotes,metaphor,metonymy,onomatopoeia,paradoxSee related entries:Linguistic devicesWord Originlate 16th cent.: via late Latin from Greek onomatopoiia ‘word-making’, from onoma, onomat- ‘name’ + -poios ‘making’ (from poiein ‘to make’).
See onomatopoeia in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
