We find that we have all been mimicking sounds without realising it, in today's Crossword We use special sound mimicking words so often that we don’t even realise we are doing it. Image Credit: Stock photo/Pixabay Boom, cuckoo, zap, boing! Don’t worry, you’re not in a comic strip. Today’s Crossword is all about onomatopoeia – words that imitate the sound they are associated with. Click start to play. This type of speech came into the English language in the late 1500s. According to Dictionary.com, onomatopoeia comes from the Greek onoma, which means “name”, and poieîn or “to make” – essentially translating to “the making of words.”