Onomatopoeia

An onomatopoeia or onomatopœia (common term is sound word) ( pronunciation (US), from the Greek ὀνοματοποιία; ὄνομα for "name" and ποιέω for "I make", adjectival form: "onomatopœic" or "onomatopœtic") is a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. Onomatopœia (as an uncountable noun) refers to the property of such words. Common occurrences of onomatopœias include animal noises, such as "oink" or "meow" or "roar" or "chirp". Onomatopœias are not the same across all languages; they conform to some extent to the broader linguistic system they are part of; hence the sound of a clock may be tick tock in English, dī dā in Mandarin, or katchin katchin in Japanese.