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In our English lesson, we talked about words that are derived from sounds.

Our teacher said they are "anamatapic", but it seems I can't get the spelling right. Even google does not provide a good suggestion for a better spelling.

So now I am looking for the word that sounds like "anamatapic" and describes the professional term for words that sound like the sound. Everything's clear?

I have tried

Close votes: thanks for the meta reference to good resources.

The following online resources don't help:

These will guide to correct results:

So, yeah, maybe I could have found it there.

And if you try Google now, you'll get a result from a strange website, which is not a dictionary, but some kind of Q&A style forum. Maybe we can put that one in the list of helpful resources, too :-D

Also cool: if I would have type the title of this EL&U question into Google instead of the intended word, the first hit is the correct Wikipedia article. I'll try to derive a pattern from this.

Thomas Weller
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    I guess you mean: onomatopoeic! –  Jun 27 '14 at 09:49
  • . . . or onomatopoetic. – Brian Donovan Jun 27 '14 at 10:07
  • Spelling tips the next time you need to remember! http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/156522/mnemonic-for-onomatopoeia – Mari-Lou A Jun 27 '14 at 10:47
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    Come on now, how can this possibly be general reference if he doesn't know what word to look up? Someone please give me the name of a commonly available reference that can be used to trivially answer this question. – phenry Jun 27 '14 at 19:58
  • I have just copied your question title in Google, and the first five or six results have websites that mention onomatopoeia. Sometimes, all you need is a good definition/description to find what you need. – Mari-Lou A Jun 27 '14 at 21:05
  • Aha, I see we have arrived at the same conclusion. Jolly good :) @phenry see my comment. I swear I did nothing else but copied the OP's question. – Mari-Lou A Jun 27 '14 at 21:06
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    The mods are in discussion about this question. We think that this is a useful question that could help other people find resources for words that they have heard, but are unsure of how to spell. With that regard, it might be a suitable candidate for the English Language Learners site, where a larger audience is more likely to be looking for this type of resource. – Kit Z. Fox Jun 27 '14 at 21:53
  • Also related: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/56600/what-part-of-speech-are-non-human-interjections-like-oink-and-bang – Kit Z. Fox Jun 27 '14 at 21:53
  • Hmm, this site is for Spelling according to the tour, so it seems on topic. of course ELL is also on topic, because the source of the problem was an English class. Maybe as a non-native speaker i should prefer ELL in general. But honestly, the tour should point out that there are related sites - and not just "124 other SE places". I mean: a clear differentiation e.g. between EL&U and ELL. If questions can be asked in German on German language, even that would fit for me. – Thomas Weller Jun 27 '14 at 22:11
  • @ThomasW. This is something which was brought to the fore in the recent moderator election. This question, together with one or two other recent posts, is a good candidate to help with the mods' discussion which KitFox alluded to. What is absolutely clear is that saying this question might be suitable for ELL is not a reflection on your English or being a non-native speaker at all. It's simply debating where questions should go to be of greatest use, and what general guidance can be drawn up to assist with that decision. – Andrew Leach Jun 27 '14 at 22:21
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    I feel like adding that the elephant in the room is that it's the teacher's whole job to answer your questions, so you should just go ahead and ask him right then and there. Not sure why you chose to try and look it up in a dictionary instead, which of course is all but impossible. (That's what reverse dictionaries are there for.) – RegDwigнt Jun 27 '14 at 23:39
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    I agree with @phenry: if this is "general reference", then there's no reason for the Internet to exist, never mind this site. I mean, really: how and where do you look up a word if you don't know anything besides its meaning? – JPmiaou Jun 28 '14 at 07:12
  • @RegDwigнt: I have only one lesson a week. I didn't ask the teacher for the spelling of the word, because usually I can figure it out without bothering him. This time I was not successful. Of course I could ask him during next lesson on 2nd of July. – Thomas Weller Jun 29 '14 at 21:35
  • FWIW, I vote for migrating this question to ELL. – Tom Au Jul 11 '14 at 00:42

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Onomatopoeia: (noun), onomatopoeic ( adj) :

The formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.