°

Funny Onomatopoeia Examples
 Ξ

The Humour of Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is figure of speech where the word sounds like the thing that it is describing.  For example, 'BOOM' 'cuckoo', or the 'bee buzzzzes'.  Allegory, double entendre, oxymoron and metaphor are other figures of speech, but none have the impudence of onomatopoeia.

 ∇

The Humour of Onomatopoeia

Even the pronunciation of onomatopoeia: 'ON-a-MAT-a-PEE-a' has caused generations of schoolboys to smirk.  Here are is an easy example of onomatopoeia in a knock-knock joke:

Knock-knock Who's there?
Boo
Boo who?
Don't cry, I was only joking.

Will and Guy's Favourite Funny and Clever Examples of Onomatopoeic Sounds

  • 'Klunk! Klick! Every trip'.
    UK promotion to encourage the wearing of car seat belts.
  • 'Snap crackle pop.' 
    Kelloggs cleverly use this onomatopoeia in their Rice Krispies adverts.
  • The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
    And murmuring of innumerable bees.
    'Come Down O Maid' by Alfred Lord Tennyson
  • 'Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.'
    Slogan of Alka Seltzer, USA
  • 'Plink, plink, fizz, fizz'.
    Alka Seltzer, UK
  • Jemimah: It's called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
    Truly Scrumptious: That's a curious name for a motorcar.
    Jemimah: But that's the sound it makes. Listen.
    It's saying chitty chitty, chitty chitty, chitty chitty, chitty chitty, chitty chitty, bang bang! chitty chitty . . . ("Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," Film 1968)

Onomatopoeia Examples In Poems and Songs

'I'm getting married in the morning!
Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime.'

By Lerner and Loewe from 'Get Me to the Church on Time' in 'My Fair Lady'.

Bake A Cake

~

Cake tins clatter and bang
Wooden spoons tap, tap, tap
Beat butter and sugar together
Cream, creamy, creamier
Softly sift self-raising flour
Crack an egg, empty contents, splat
Gurgle milk into the mix
Hand-held egg-beater whirring
Bake the cake for an hour
Lick the bowl, rinse and wash
Slosh, splash water on the floor
Tip hot cake onto rack to cool
Pipe icing and whipped cream
Plonk strawberries round edge
Yummy, kids say to their mummy.

By Lee Emmett

 ф

A Day In The Life Of A Secretary - An Onomatopoeic PoemOnomatopoeia

The flurry of words
Spouting from his mouth,
I scribble in a hurry.
I click the mouse
And launch a search
To fish out any info
That may fill up the blanks
Left wide open by him.
I hammer the keys of my lap top,
To create some semblance of a draft,
Every now and then, darts out, my portly boss
All sweating and fuming, he rudely hisses:
'What's happening? Time is ticking away
This reply needs to be sent today.'
Glued to my seat;
Glued to the monitor,
I gobble up some pizza
And gulp down some cola
Continually the mobile cries,
Merrily do my friends chatter,
I have no time to stop and hear ,
Time is ticking away
This reply needs to be sent today.
Finally the draft is done
Proudly I strut to his room
He picks one small mistake and barks
After all that toil and sweat I have put in
I feel like biting him, nay,
tear him to pieces!
'Correct this mistake and send it now!'
He growls and scowls
I correct the draft and hit
the send button with a curse
The reply is finally on its course
with a curse.

By JR Sterling.

Examples of Onomatopoeia In Animal Sounds

¡

Examples of OnomatopoeiaLion - roar
Cat - meow, mew, purr
Cow - moo, low
Horse - whinny
Dog - bark, bow wow, woof
Pig - oink
Lion - roar
Bird - chirrup, chirp, tweet
Hen - cluck
Ass - bray
Elephant - trumpet
Coyote - yelp, cry
Cuckoo - cuckoo
Flies - buzz
Frog - croak
Geese - cackle, quack
Grasshopper - chirp
Bee - buzz
Donkey - eeh aah, heehaw
Owl - screech, hoot
Rook - caw
Turkey - gobble

Note:
Please send us your funny onomatopoeia examples, even if they don't feature animals or noises.

10 Funny Collective Nouns

We are collecting amusing examples of other funny figures of speech, but let us start with amusing collective nouns.sExamples of Collective Nouns - An Exaggeration of fishermenFunny Collective NounsAn exaggeration of fishermen

  1. An exaggeration of fishermen
  2. A decanter of publicans
  3. A ponder of philosophers
  4. A nucleus of physicists
  5. A portfolio of stockbrokers
  6. A flush of plumbers
  7. A corps of anatomists
  8. A bodge of DIYers
  9. A scoop of journalists
  10. An expectation of midwives

See more funny examples of collective nouns.

Examples of Funny Words Making Clever Phrases

¡
  • Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.
  • When fish are in schools they sometimes take debate.
  • We'll never run out of math teachers because they always multiply.
  • Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off?  He's all right now.
  • The butcher backed up into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
  • To write with a broken pencil is pointless.
  • The professor discovered that her theory of earthquakes was on shaky ground.
  • The dead batteries were given out free of charge.
  • A dentist and a manicurist fought tooth and nail.
  • A bicycle can't stand alone, it is two tired.
  • Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
  • A backward poet writes inverse.
  • In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.
  • The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
  • If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.
  • With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
  • Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I'll show you A-flat miner.
  • When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
  • The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.
  • A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France, resulted in Linoleum Blownapart.
  • You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
  • Local Area Network in Australia : The LAN down under.
  • He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.

Many a Funny Word - Spoken in Jest

  • The longest one-syllable word in the English language is 'screeched.'
  • Los Angeles's full name is 'El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula' and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, 'L.A.'
  • The name for Oz in the 'Wizard of Oz' was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence 'Oz.'
  • The longest common word that you can type with just the left hand is probably 'Stewardesses', however there is the obscure but longer: 'Aftercataracts'.  With the right hand the longest word is Phyllophyllin.  (Lolypop comes close, but as Groucho Marx would say: 'no cigar')
  • The combination 'ough' can be pronounced in nine different ways. The following sentence contains them all 'A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.'
  • The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
  • Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning 'containing arsenic.'

Amusing Words

  • There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, 'therein' the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.
  • The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.
  • The word 'set' has more definitions than any other word in the English language.
  • 'Underground' is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters 'und.'

 

Footnote:
Please send us your funny onomatopoeia examples.

If you like this page then please share it with your friends

 

See more wise words, witticisms and quotes

• Funny words of wisdom   • Wise words   • Witticisms   • Funny thoughts to ponder   • A funny word

• Maturity   • Witty funny quotes   • Famous people sayings   • Wisdom sayings   • Perks for over 60s

• Meaning of words   • Wisdom   • Funny thought of the day   • Rules of life   • Funny put downs