Examples of Onomatopoeia

Remember, "Jingle bells, jingle bells...", "Baa baa black sheep have you any wool?", or "Twinkle twinkle little star..."? These are all examples of onomatopoeia. Here, as you can see that the things and actions are named or denoted by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with them. This is what forms the base of an onomatopoeia definition. In simple words, onomatopoeia is using words that imitate the sound they denote. Here is a list of some commonly used onomatopoeia words you can refer to.

Good Onomatopoeia Words

Animals	Sounds
Alligators	hiss, grunt
Apes	gibber
Ass	bray
Badgers	growl
Bear	growl
Bee	buzz
Bird	chirrup, chirp, tweet
Bull	bellow
Cat	meow, mew, purr
Calve	bleat
Chick	peep
Cock	crow
Cow	moo, low
Coyote	yelp, cry
Cuckoo	cuckoo
Dingo	bark, cry
Dinosaur	grr, growl, screech
Dog	bark, bow wow, woof
Dolphin	click
Donkey	eeh aah, heehaw
Doves	coo
Eagles	scream
Elephant	trumpet
Falcon	chant
Ferret	dook
Fish	glub, blub, glug
Flies	buzz
Fox	yelp, bark
Frog	croak
Geese	cackle, hiss, honk, quack
Giraffe	bleat
goat	bleat
Grasshopper	chirp
Hare	squeak
Hen	cluck
Horse	whinny
Hyena	laugh
Jackal	howl
Jay	chatter
Lion	roar
Magpie	chatter
Mice	squeak
Monkey	gibber
Moose	bellow
Mosquitoes	whine
Ostrich	bleep
Owl	screech
Parrot	talk
Peacocks	scream
Penguin	honk
Pig	oink
Raccoon	chitter
Raven	croak
Rook	caw
Stag	bellow
Swallow	twit and squeal
Turkey	gobble
Vulture	scream
Walrus	groan
Whale	sings
Wolf	howl, cry
Zebra	click

Some More Examples

Achoo	Ahem
Bah	Bam
Bang	Bash
Bawl	Beep
Biff	Blare
Blurt	Boing
Boink	Bong
Bonk	Boo
Boom	Bubble
Bump	Buzz
Clack	Clank
Clatter	Click
Clink	Cluck
Clunk	Crackle
Crackled	Crunch
Ding	Eek
Fizz	Flick
Fluttering	Hiccup
Honk	Hum
Jingle	Ping
Plop	Poof
Pow	Puff
Purr	Rattled
Ring	Screech
Sizzled	Slurch
Slurp	Snore
Swish	Swoosh
Thud	Tick-tock
Ting	Toot
Varoom, vroom	Wham
Whirr	Whoosh
Yikes	Zap
Zing	Zip

Now, when it comes to some onomatopoeia words for kids, nothing would fit the bill better than some nursery rhymes and poems. So here they are. Read them and know the sounds better!

Crack An Egg

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. - Denise Rodgers

The Pit Bull

The pit bull yelped,
As the police took him away,
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. - D. Alsup

Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio

It's a jazz affair, drum crashes and cornet razzes.
The trombone pony neighs and the tuba jackass snorts.
The banjo tickles and titters too awful.
The chippies talk about the funnies in the papers.
The cartoonists weep in their beer.
Ship riveters talk with their feet
To the feet of floozies under the tables.
A quartet of white hopes mourn with interspersed snickers:
"I got the blues.
I got the blues.
I got the blues."
And . . . as we said earlier:
The cartoonists weep in their beer. - Carl Sandburg

Cynthia in the Snow

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. - Gwendolyn Brooks

The Rusty Spigot

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. - Eve Merriam

Hope this article has helped you get hold of the idea about the use of onomatopoeia, and you can come up with your own poems and lyrics where you can incorporate its usage. So keep 'onomatopoesing' and have fun with sounds. This is me signing off... Whoosh!