Dictionary

sound symbolism en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) Phonetic symbolism.
2. (countable, qualifier:more specifically, uncountable) The phenomenon by which some speech sounds are associated with the meanings they convey, either intrinsically or by a recurring phono-semantic association, or an instance thereof; an ideophone. ▸ speech sound that is neither arbitrary with respect to meaning nor an onomatopoeia that imitates a real sound
3. (countable, uncountable) The phenomenon by which some speech sounds are associated with the meanings they convey, either intrinsically or by a recurring phono-semantic association, or an instance thereof; an ideophone. ▸ the property of such a sound or sequence of sounds

Forms

Coordinates

expressive · imitative · onomatopoeia

Deriveds

sound-symbolic

Hypernyms

iconicity

Hyponyms

expressivity · any non-arbitrary sound · expression · phonestheme · ideophone

Relateds

sound symbolism in the Wiktionary glossary

Synonyms

ideophonics · phonaesthesia · mimologics · phonosemantics · sound symbolics · ideophone