sound symbolism

plural sound symbolisms · alternative sound-symbolism

1. countableuncountablehuman sciencesPhonetic symbolism.

   Synonyms: mimologics, phonosemantics, ideophone, ideophonics, phonaesthesia, sound symbolics

2. 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.
   1. countableuncountablemore specificallyhuman sciencesspeech sound that is neither arbitrary with respect to meaning nor an onomatopoeia that imitates a real sound
   2. countableuncountablehuman sciencesthe property of such a sound or sequence of sounds