Back to Basics: Onomatopoeia

Today’s lesson covers a very simple form of figurative language. An onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like its meaning.

Examples would include words such as boom, bang, crunch, clatter, crackle, hiss, and buzz.

Comic books and comic strips have made use of enough onomatopoeia it has become rather cliche. Who hasn’t seen a panel of a superhero punching a villain with a big “pow” written out in colorful bubble letters?

Within the medium of comics, such uses have double impact because the onomatopoeia corresponds to the auditory sense while the visual of the font and colors chosen for the word itself give visual cues as to the feelings the reader should infer the characters are experiencing.

The nature of onomatopoeia should give you an idea of its use. While imagery most often invokes the reader’s visual sense, onomatopoeia is used to trigger a reader’s auditory sense. It can create atmosphere and a sense of timing though this use since, even though the words used for onomatopoeia are usually short, not all of the sounds they invoke are as well. Additional descriptors such as droning or constant or rhythmic can be used in combination with an onomatopoeia to further their meaning and add to the overall scene.

Examples:

The droning buzz of bees filled the garden.

Rain pattered on the window panes as the night wore on, combining with Fluff’s rumbling purr to lull little Maggie to sleep.