Meanings
alternative sound symbolic
- not comparablehuman sciencescharacterized by sound symbolism
Wagner proposes a sound-symbolic origin, after the sounds these insects [grasshoppers] make. Although this cannot be fully excluded, this word exhibits suspiciously little formal variation for a sound-symbolic formation.
2025, Cid Swanenvleugel, The Pre-Roman Elements of the Sardinian Lexicon, page 198Synonyms: expressive, ideophonic, imitative, mimological, phonaesthetic, phonosemantic
- not comparablemore specificallyhuman sciences(of a unit of sound or meaning such as a word, morpheme, phoneme, syllable, etc.) composed of speech sounds that are not arbitrary but also not overtly onomatopoeic
"Bouba" and "Kiki" are sound-symbolic labels, not directly imitating any actual sound but nonetheless carrying strong intrinsic associations with roundness and pointiness, respectively.
Synonyms: expressive, ideophonic, imitative, mimological, phonaesthetic, phonosemantic
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivecharacterized by sound symbolism
adjective(of a unit of sound or meaning such as a word, morpheme, phoneme, syllable, etc.) composed of speech sounds that are not arbitrary but also not overtly onomatopoeic
Origin
Cite this entry
sound-symbolic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sound-symbolic
“sound-symbolic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sound-symbolic. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sound-symbolic,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sound-symbolic.
Source: sound-symbolic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.