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Onomatopoeia
Pronounced: on-o-mat-o-PEE-a
Onomatopoeia = Words that imitate sounds or sounds that are linked with objects. In short, literary
sound effects.
Another Literary Special Effect that makes long car trips, train trips, and airplane trips much more
enjoyable !
Examples:
Cats mew. Dogs yelp.
Cows moo. Campfires crackle and roar.
Flashcards
Cut on solid lines, fold on dotted lines.
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Pronounced: on-o-mat-o-PEE-a
Words that imitate sounds or sounds that
are linked with objects. In short, literary
Onomatopoeia sound effects. (from Greek = name-making)
Quick ... without thinking ... what is the sound alarm clocks make?
Activities —
Matching ...
Match the items below to the sound they make.
Item Sound
turkeys bleep
soda pop burr
morning bathroom sound cackle
hens chugg
machinery fizzle
robot garble
water coming out of a jug gobble
Wow
Try some more matching ...
Item Sound
tuba honk
keys hoot
horses jingle
owls jangle
bells mumble
frustrated children neigh
car oompah
Sizzling
Try some more matching ...
Item Sound
Flash
Item Sound
Slurp
1) Look through a newspapers' comic section or old comic books (like Batman) and identify
examples of onomatopoeia.
Pop
2) Many times children's story books will have examples of onomatopoeia. Try to locate one
or two books and give onomatopoeia examples.
Zoom
3) Pretend you are at any of the places below. What onomatopoeia words can you come up
with for each?
a) Church: sanctuary, nave, minister's office, cloak room, school room, etc.
b) Places: museum, amusement park, restaurant, neighborhood family park, forest,
campground, hospital, grocery store, mall, toy store, candy factory, etc.
c) Home: front room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, homeschooling /
homework room, hallway, basement/attic, front yard, back yard, etc.
5) Verbally, and as quickly as you can, make some onomatopoetic sound effect sentences with the
following words.
6) Give onomatopoetic sound effect examples from nursery rhymes and fairy tales.
Quick ... without thinking ... what is the sound sirens make?
Quick ... without thinking ... what is the sound flags make?
FYI
Onomatopoeia = noun
Onomatopoetic = adjective
Onomatopoeically = adverb
Onomatopoetically = adverb
Quick ... without thinking ... what is the sound trains make?
Literary Examples —
Quick ... without thinking ... what is the sound an angry Viking makes?
The Bells
Edgar Allan Poe
I II
Hear the sledges with the bells — Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Silver bells! Golden bells!
What a world of merriment their melody fore- What a world of happiness their harmony fore-
tells! tells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, Through the balmy air of night
In the icy air of night! How they ring out their delight!
While the stars that over sprinkle From the molten-golden notes,
All the heavens, seem to twinkle And an in tune,
With a crystalline delight; What a liquid ditty floats
Keeping time, time, time, To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
In a sort of Runic rhyme, On the moon!
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells Oh, from out the sounding cells,
From the bells, bells, bells, bells, What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
Bells, bells, bells — How it swells!
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. How it dwells
On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
Bells, bells, bells —
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
IV
III
Hear the tolling of the bells —
Hear the loud alarm bells —
Iron Bells!
Brazen bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
compels!
In the startled ear of night
In the silence of the night,
How they scream out their affright!
How we shiver with affright
Too much horrified to speak,
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
They can only shriek, shriek,
For every sound that floats
Out of tune,
From the rust within their throats
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the
Is a groan.
fire,
And the people — ah, the people —
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic
They that dwell up in the steeple,
fire,
All Alone
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
With a desperate desire,
In that muffled monotone,
And a resolute endeavor,
Feel a glory in so rolling
Now — now to sit or never,
On the human heart a stone —
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
They are neither man nor woman —
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
They are neither brute nor human —
What a tale their terror tells
They are Ghouls:
Of Despair!
And their king it is who tolls;
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
What a horror they outpour
Rolls
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
A paean from the bells!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
And his merry bosom swells
By the twanging,
With the paean of the bells!
And the clanging,
And he dances, and he yells;
How the danger ebbs and flows:
Keeping time, time, time,
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
In the jangling,
To the paean of the bells —
And the wrangling,
Of the bells:
How the danger sinks and swells,
Keeping time, time, time,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
bells —
To the throbbing of the bells —
Of the bells —
Of the bells, bells, bells —
Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
To the sobbing of the bells;
Bells, bells, bells —
Keeping time, time, time,
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells —
Of the bells, bells, bells:
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells —
Bells, bells, bells —
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.