Echoism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The practice of creating words or language by imitating sounds from the environment. countable, uncountable

    "One possibility is that language developed from echoism, i.e. from attempts of early humans to imitate natural sounds and react vocally to emotions."

Synonyms

All synonyms
onomatopoeiaonomatopoeia

Example

More examples

"One possibility is that language developed from echoism, i.e. from attempts of early humans to imitate natural sounds and react vocally to emotions."

Etymology

From echo + -ism.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.