onomatopeia
Portuguese, noun
onomatopeia is spelled O-N-O-M-A-T-O-P-E-I-A (11 letters) and appears about once in every 14 million words in written Portuguese, the 112,486th most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Onomatopeia is a Portuguese feminine noun meaning “onomatopoeia (property of a word of sounding like what it represents)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With an accent, onomatopéia is a different word: “pre-reform spelling (used until 1990) of onomatopeia; may still occur…”. The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “palavra cujo falar lembra o som de uma coisa específica”.
What does onomatopeia mean in English?
noun
- 1
feminineonomatopoeia (property of a word of sounding like what it represents)
- 2
feminineonomatopoeia (word that sounds like what it represents)
noun
- 1
femininepre-reform spelling (used until 1990) of onomatopeia; may still occur as a sporadic misspelling
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
noun: 1. vide onomatopeia
noun: 1. palavra cujo falar lembra o som de uma coisa específica
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of onomatopeia
- onomatopeias plural
- onomatopéia alternative
- onomatopéa alternative
- onomatopéias plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to onomatopeia
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is onomatopeia in Portuguese?
onomatopeia appears about once in every 14 million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).