Standard Lemma guide

ideophone

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈɪ.di.(j)ə(ʊ)ˌfəʊn/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A word that uses sound symbolism to express aspects of events that can be experienced by the senses, like smell, color, shape, sound, action, or movement.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: grammar, human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

Examples

  • 1969 October, William J. Samarin, The Art of Gbeya Insults, in International Journal of American Linguistics 35(4), page 325, JSTOR In insults the ideophone occurs either in its characteristic position, the verb phrase, or uncharacteristically as a modifier in a noun phrase.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From ideo- + -phone. James F. Fordyce (The Ideophone as a Phonosemantic Class: The Case of Yoruba, in Current approaches to African linguistics, Ivan R. Dihoff (ed.), page 263) credits C. M. Doke with introducing the term in 1935.

Across languages

Translations

19 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 摹擬音 /摹拟音 (mónǐyīn) — sound symbolic word
  • Dutch: ideofoon — sound symbolic word
  • Finnish: ideofoni — sound symbolic word
  • French: idéophone — sound symbolic word
  • German: Ideophon — sound symbolic word
  • Greek: ιδιόφωνο (idiófono) — sound symbolic word
  • Italian: ideofono — sound symbolic word
  • Japanese: 擬態語 (gitaigo) — sound symbolic word
  • Japanese: 擬音語 (giongo) — sound symbolic word
  • Korean: 의태어 (uitaeeo) — sound symbolic word
  • Korean: 의성어 (uiseong'eo) — sound symbolic word
  • Polish: ideofon — sound symbolic word
  • Portuguese: ideofone — sound symbolic word
  • Russian: идеофо́н (ideofón) — sound symbolic word
  • Spanish: ideófono — sound symbolic word
  • Swedish: ideofon — sound symbolic word
  • Swedish: ideofoni — sound symbolic word
  • Xhosa: isifanekisozwi — sound symbolic word
  • Yoruba: idíófóònù — sound symbolic word