Onomatopoeia

Words which imitate the sounds they represent, for example ‘click’ and ‘clack’, or the use of consonant sounds to mimic the sound they are describing, for example to create the rhythm of high heels on a wooden floor.

A more extensive list of literary terms, with quotations from fiction and non-fiction sources showing the terms in use, is included in The Right Word: A Writer’s Toolkit of Grammar, Vocabulary and Literary Terms (Bloomsbury 2021) 

© Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2021