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Onomatopoeia vs Arbitrariness - What's the difference?

onomatopoeia | arbitrariness |

As nouns the difference between onomatopoeia and arbitrariness

is that onomatopoeia is the property of a word of sounding like what it represents while arbitrariness is the quality or state of being arbitrary.

onomatopoeia

English

(wikipedia onomatopoeia)

Alternative forms

* onomatopeia *

Noun

  • (uncountable) The property of a word of sounding like what it represents.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year= 1553 , year_published= 1909 , author= , (Desiderius Erasmus) , by= , title= Arte of Rhetorique , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=6p0xbOGIz2MC&pg=PA173 , original= , chapter= , section= , isbn= , edition= , publisher= Clarendon Press , location= Oxford , editor= , volume= , page= , passage= A woorde making called of the Grecians Onomatapoia , is when wee make wordes of our owne minde, such as bee derived from the nature of things. }}
  • (countable) A word that sounds like what it represents, such as "gurgle" or "hiss".
  • (uncountable, rhetoric) The use of language whose sound imitates that which it names.

    • Synonyms

    * imitative harmony * mimesis * sound symbolism

    Related terms

    * onomatope * onomatopoeial * onomatopoeian * onomatopoeic * onomatopoeious * onomatopoetic

    See also

    * Wiktionary's category of English words not following the I before E except after C rule

    arbitrariness

    English

    (wikipedia arbitrariness)

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • The quality or state of being arbitrary.

    • Synonyms

    * arbitrarity (much less common )