Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

sound symbolism

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.45 in modern English

Syllables: sound sym-bol-ism
IPA

24

Scrabble Score

14

Letters

3

Syllables

10

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Phonetic symbolism.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

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.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

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.

Countable; Uncountable

Usage

Subject

Wiktionary places this term in Linguistics.

Inflected Forms

sound symbolisms (plural)

Phrases

sound-symbolic sound symbolism in the Wiktionary glossary

Frequently Paired Words

sound symbolism in the Wiktionary glossary expressive imitative onomatopoeia

Synonyms

mimologics phonosemantics ideophone ideophonics phonaesthesia sound symbolics

Questions

What does sound symbolism mean?: Phonetic symbolism.

How to pronounce sound symbolism

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “sound symbolism”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
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Repeat and practice — Say “sound symbolism” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.