Onomatopoeia Worksheets

Related ELA Standard: R.4 and L.5

Core Standard
Answer Keys Here

When a word is associated with the sound or actually mimics a sound or action we call this an instance of onomatopoeia. If you remember the old Batman television series, you are super familiar with onomatopoeia. Bam! Blam! Whack! These were just some of common uses to describe the action sequences in this series. Below you will find a selection of worksheets that helps students identify and use instances of onomatopoeia. This literary technique, when used wisely, can really heighten the story for your audience because it helps improve their reading experience. These can be very helpful when students begin to write very detailed works.

Onomatopoeia Worksheets To Print:

Using Words to Describe Sound - What sounds do the animals make? Onomatopoeia is often used when writing about animals and the sounds they make. For each animal listed below, think about the sound that animal makes. Then write an onomatopoeia word on the line to describe the sound.

Sounds Like... - Rewrite each sentence to add more feeling to it. : Rewrite each sentence below, using onomatopoeia to make the sentence more interesting.

Descriptive Language - Which word makes the best sense for each sentence? You may have to get these thoughts in your mind.

Fill It With Boxes - Pick the word that makes the sentence more appealing to your sense of sound.

Where Is It? - Some of these sentences are very loud. Onomatopoeia is a kind of descriptive writing that helps bring your work to life.

Conveying Sound with Words - You will need to underline a bit here. You will be looking for where the sound is described within each sentence.

Sound Words - Where is the sense word in each entry? You just need to write the word that they are looking for on line.

Making Sounds with Words - For each descriptive word below, draw a picture of an animal that would make that sound.

Expressing Sound with Words - What do all of the words have in common? Describe the circumstances in which you might hear the sound being described.

Automotive Onomatopoeia - Each sound here refers to an automobile. Can you guess what the sound is describing? Write your guess for each sound in the box!

Sounds The Same - More work of recognition of sounds. Find the use in each sentence and underline it.

Song Remains the Same - Your asked to create your own well thought out sentences using the technique that we have been learn about.

Sound Words - Complete each sentence below with a word from the Word Bank. There is a word bank to help you with this one.

Writing with Onomatopoeia - Write 5 original sentences using the helping words provided.

Match-up! - We couldn't leave you without a matching activity to play with. This one is very helpful.

Common Uses Authors Have For Onomatopoeia

The fun part of using onomatopoeia is that you can sometimes make it up as you go along. There are many uses of it that authors are fond of. The most common is to help explain the sounds that things make. Let’s take a look at how it helps jazz up sentences. We can describe a boat sinking by saying that it gave off bubble sounds as it sank to the ocean floor. You can add a good bit of flavor to the sentence by saying the boat made the sound glug, glug as it sank to the ocean floor. This gives the reader and exact sense of what is going on.


Onomatopoeia is frequently found in poetry and specifically nursery rhymes. The most common use is for animal sounds like squeak and chirp, but you will also find them used for human sounds. People have been known to giggle, slurp, and even go achoo when they sneeze. Think about your every day. How many times do you come across examples of onomatopoeia and not even realize it. As I sit here writing I am chomping down my breakfast.


There are two quite common uses for this type of language. Mimicking animal sounds is often the foremost reason for using this literary device. We all know that cats go meow and dogs go woof. The other lesser common usage is for farm animals in the shape of sheep and pigs (baa and oink). The second most common placement of this technique is to provide words in comedic or action-based situations. Check just about any comic book and you will see what I mean by just reading a strip or two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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