Written Sound
Onomatopoeia Dictionary
Words that sound like the thing they mean: Imitative words. From the Greek "onoma" (name) and "poiein" (to make)
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bratatat

sound of machine gun. (Bratatat! is a Roy Lichtenstein painting)

weapon

bwow-chcka-bwow

funky palm-muted riffs with wah pedal (sound effect), associated with pornographic movie soundtracks. often combined with playing "airguitar". see also: neow, jug, whockah

music

chough

genus Pyrrhocorax of birds in the Corvidae (crow) family. now universally pronounced 'chuff'. However it probably originally rhymed with "how", as 'chow' is a reasonable representation of its call (according to this website). link1 (white-winged chough), link2 (red-billed chough)

animal bird

chuck-will's-widow

(Caprimulgus carolinensis) nocturnal bird of the nightjar family Caprimulgidae, similar to the whip-poor-will, found in the southeastern United States near swamps, rocky uplands, and pine woods. It migrates to the West Indies, Central America, and northwestern South America. voice: Call a loud "Chuck-will's-widow," with the first "chuck" being quiet and inaudible at a distance. about this bird

animal bird

clackety-clack

sound of a train sound of a train riding on a railroad switch or joint (Song of the train by david McCord, in Noisy poems by Jill Bennett). also: clickety-clack

metal engine

clickety-clack

sound of a train sound of a train riding on a railroad switch or joint (Song of the train by david McCord, in Noisy poems by Jill Bennett), see also clackety-clack

metal movement engine

common poor-will

(Phalaenoptilus nuttallii) nocturnal bird of the family Caprimulgidae, the nightjars, found from British Columbia and southeastern Alberta, through the western United States to northern Mexico. Call: a loud "poor-will." about this bird

animal bird

dakka

the sound produced by fully-automatic weapons in action. Use in computer gaming: Acquiring "more dakka" leads to a faster rate of bullet discharge and thus improves the player's overall chance of taking out hostiles ref

weapons

dirnt

Sound of a bass-guitar. From: Mike Dirnt, the bassist of the rock band Green day. Dirnt's birth name is Michael Ryan Pritchard. According to Wikipedia, at school, he would would often play "air-bass", pretending to pluck the strings, while making the noise, "dirnt, dirnt, dirnt". As a result, his schoolmates began to call him "Mike Dirnt". See also Yahoo Answers. Related: wub wub, wob wob and other sounds of bass in dubstep music.

jangle

to make a harsh metallic sound, or to cause to make a harsh discordant sound

metal

plain chachalaca

(Ortalis vetula) a large bird in the Cracidae family. The call is a loud, raucous RAW-pa-haw or cha-cha-LAW-ka, often by several birds in a rhytmical chorus. link1, video

animal bird

potato-potato-potato

Sound of a poorly running motorcycle engine. The sound emphasis is on the 'p' and 't' rather than the vowels. Janet writes: "My sister used the above expression to describing a problem she had on starting a new motorcycle - it was jerking along as if it had 'kangaroo juice' in the tank. She assumed a "Gangnam Style" stance and dance to illustrate it, while saying "there I was going 'potato-potato-potato' - what a show-up!" She says that this expression is often used within her group of motorcycling friends, usually in connection with novice riders, although it may be in use more widely across the UK. The sound emphasis seems to be on the 'p' and 't' rather than the vowels." (thanks Janet!)

engine movement

reek

sound of a squeaky metal hinge ("Garfield", Jim davis)

metal

t'chi

sound of an arrow being shot from a bow ("Sebgugugu the Glutton: A Bantu tale from Rwanda", by Verna Aardema)

weapon

ta-da

interjection, used as mock fanfare to call attention to something remarkable. also: ta-dah, tada

human

tabdak tabdak

Sound of a running horse

tch, tch, tch

sound of chopping off branches of wood ("Sebgugugu the Glutton: A Bantu tale from Rwanda", by Verna Aardema)

hard_hit light_hit

thung

sound of a blow to a metal object (features in a Roy Lichtenstein painting

hard_hit metal

wah-wah

brass instrument effect of using a mute, or electric guitar sound effect (wah pedal)

music

whockah

sound of palm-muted rhythmic strumming on an electric guitar with wah pedal, as in the intro of Jimi Hendrix’s "Voodoo Chile", for example. often combined with playing "airguitar". see also: neow, jug, bwow-chcka-bwow

music

whooping crane

bird species name, the tallest North American bird, an endangered crane species named for its whooping sound and call

animal bird

whumpf

When the fracture of a weak snow layer causes an upper layer to collapse, making a whumpfing sound. Whumpf has been adopted as a technical avalanche term to describe the sound of a collapsing snowpack when you cross the snow. For instance, "we got a lot of whumpfing today", or "the snowpack whumpfed like rolling thunder just before it released and caught us." Avalanche Encyclopedia

Weather snow movement hit

woop woop

Sound of a police car in the United States. Police often use the siren intermittently. Also spelled whoop whoop. This onomatopoeia is used in the chorus of the 1993 hip hop track Sound of da Police by KRS-One. Hear a police car

alarm tone music

wub wub

The sound of the signature repetitive bass (wobble bass) in 'dubstep' music (a kind of electronic dance music). Other dubstep sounds: WOB WOB WOB WEB WEEEEEB WEEB WOOOB WOOOOB breeeeaaaaa breaaaaaaa WOBB WOBB, nehnehweeh, YOI YOI YOI WAHBWUHB - ref. Related: The sound of a bass guitar dirnt

yadda yadda

boring or empty talk - often used interjectionally especially in recounting words regarded as too dull or predictable to be worth repeating. also: yada yada


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