Words Commonly Used to Describe Sounds
April 16, 2011 § 5 Comments
Via
Audra Wolowiec’s beautiful blog Lineforms.
bang, bark, beep, bellow, blare, blast, bleat, bong, boom, bray, buzz, cackle, cheep, chime, clack, clank, clap, clatter, clink, cluck, clunk, crack, crackle, crash, creak, dingdong, drop, drumming, fizz, glug, gnashing, gobble, grating, growl, grumble, gurgle, hiss, hoot, howl, hum, jingle, jangle, kachink, knock, mew, moan, mod, murmur, neigh, patter, peal, peep, pop, power, pounding, pulsing, purr, put-put, rap, rat-a-tat, rattle, ring, rippling, roar, rumble, rushing, rustle, scream, scrunch, shriek, sizzle, slam, snap, snarl, snort, splash, sputter, squawk, squeal, squish, stamp, swish, swoosh, tap, tattoo, tearing, throb, thud, thump, thunder, tick, tick-tock, tinkle, toot, trill, twang, twitter, wail, wheeze, whine, whir, whisper, yap, yelp, zap
See also: Words Commonly Used to Describe Smells
From the Handbook of Noise Measurement by Arnold P. G. Peterson, General Radio Company 1972:
Word Object 
Thank you for this post. I am a wee bit of a logophile and always looking for a choice word to enrich my writing.
I would like to do a comparison of words in other languages that describe sounds for example the word swoosh is the equivalent for the word in papiamentu zjègèrè. and boom is bidim. I wish we can do a compilation in different languages by pooling our knowledge per language.
you forgot SIGH… grrrrr
[…] See also: Words Commonly Used to Describe Sounds […]
Talking about languages, “bang” it is also used in Spain, South America, and Italy!!