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Onomatopoeia vs Tinkle - What's the difference?

onomatopoeia | tinkle |

As nouns the difference between onomatopoeia and tinkle

is that onomatopoeia is (uncountable) the property of a word of sounding like what it represents while tinkle is a light metallic sound, resembling the tinkling of bells or wind chimes.

As a verb tinkle is

to make light metallic sounds, rather like a very small bell.

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

    tinkle

    English

    Verb

    (tinkl)
  • To make light metallic sounds, rather like a very small bell.
    • The glasses tinkled together as they were placed on the table.
  • * Dodsley
    • The sprightly horse / Moves to the music of his tinkling bells.
  • (intransitive, informal, juvenile) To urinate.
  • To cause to tinkle.
  • To indicate, signal, etc. by tinkling.
    • The butler tinkled dinner.
  • To hear, or resound with, a small, sharp sound.
  • * Dryden
    • And his ears tinkled , and the colour fled.

    Related terms

    * tinkle the ivories

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A light metallic sound, resembling the tinkling of bells or wind chimes.
  • * 1994 , (Stephen Fry), (The Hippopotamus) , ch. 2:
    • At the very moment he cried out, David realised that what he had run into was only the Christmas tree. . . . There were no sounds of any movement upstairs: no shouts, no sleepy grumbles, only a gentle tinkle from the decorations as the tree had recovered from the collision.
  • (UK, informal) A telephone call.
    • Give me a tinkle when you arrive.
  • (informal, euphemism) An act of urination.