Boom! Crunch! Pop!
Onomato . . . what?
Hard to spell but easy to use, an onomatopoeia (ahn-uh-mat-uh-PEE-uh) is a word that sounds like what it means.
If you think for a minute, you can probably come up with lots of examples. Hiss, snip, thud, clonk . . . Comic books are a great place to look for onomatopoeias in action. Pow!
Or, try thinking about a barnyard. Most languages have onomatopoeic words for the sounds animals make.