Common Japanese onomatopoeia words and how to use them

Have you ever read manga or watched anime and noticed words like ドキドキ (doki-doki)

or キラキラ (kira-kira)　 flashing across the page or screen? They’re not just random sound effects—they’re a fascinating and essential aspect of the Japanese language known as オノマトペ (“onomatopoeia”).

In this article, we'll explore 10 of the most common Japanese onomatopoeia—what they mean, how they’re used, and how they add depth and character to everyday language.

Let’s listen closely to the sounds of Japan:

What are onomatopoeia?

An onomatopoeia is a word which imitates or resembles the thing it describes. Onomatopoeia often represent sounds (e.g., thump, beep, quack) but can also represent actions (e.g., gulp, yawn, hiccup).

But!

... did you hear that?

That’s the sound of us only just scratching the surface of all the different ways onomatopoeia can be used 💪

(Yes, I know that was terrible.)

The five types of Japanese onomatopoeia words

Japanese onomatopoeia can describe sounds, just as English onomatopoeia do. (Duh, otherwise they wouldn't be called onomatopoeia.)

But they can also do much more than that:

You don't need to remember these technical words (and it can even be sort of blurry business to determine a particular onomatopoeia's category, as many have multiple usages). Just know that you'll see Japanese onomatopoeia used to describe things you wouldn't use onomatopoeia to describe in English. You'll also see onomatopoeia used in places you might not expect as a native English speaker, such as "normal" conversations between adults:

10 common Japanese onomatopoeia you'll find in manga

Whether it’s the beating of a nervous heart, the muttering of a socially awkward otaku, or the unexplained sparkle that seems to follow the popular girl around school—there's an onomatopoeia for that.

In fact, there are tons of onomatopoeia in Japanese. This Japanese onomatopoeia dictionary alone has 4,500 entries. (Of course, the majority of them are not regularly used, and wouldn't be known by your typical Japanese person.)

So, to get you started, here are 10 super common onomatopoeia that, so long as you're somehow interacting with Japanese media, you'll inevitably bump your shin into.

1. ドキドキ (doki-doki): The sound of a heart beating fast

ドキドキ (doki-doki)

is a gitaigo that expresses the sound or feeling of a rapidly beating heart—ba-dump, ba-dump—often from excitement, nervousness, or anticipation. (Or even just intense exercise.)

In this panel of Witch Watch, Nico’s heart starts pounding with excitement after reuniting with her childhood friend, Morihito.

Example sentences:

2. ザー (zaa): The sound of pouring rain

ザーザー (zaa-zaa)

is a giongo that describes the sound of heavy falling rain. You may also see it used to describe forcefully flowing water in general.

Example sentences:

3. カタカタ (kata-kata): The sound of clattering or rattling

カタカタ (kata-kata)

is a giongo that mimics the clattering or rattling of something—the sound made when two hard objects come lightly and repeatedly in contact with one another.

It's often used to describe the sound of things moving around, like keys rustling in a bag or a machine running. Perhaps most commonly, though, you'll see it used to represent the sound of typing on a keyboard. (Or, in this case, the buttons on a cash register.)

Example sentences:

4. キャア (kyaa): The sound of a scream or squeal

キャア (kyaa)

is a giseigo that mimics that high-pitched scream that people let out when they're surprised, scared, or extremely excited. Notably, this is an example of 女性語 (joseigo, women's speech); when men scream, they would be described as having said うわ！ (uwa!) instead (which is apparently somehow more masculine.)

If you get into the work of Junji Ito, you'll learn this one by heart.

Example sentences:

5. ゴロゴロ (goro-goro): Rolling (large rock or thunder)

ゴロゴロ (goro-goro)

is a Japanese onomatopoeia that's got slightly more to it than meets the eye. It's technically a giongo which mimics the sound of something heavy rumbling around, like a boulder coming down a hill or thunder roaring in the distance.

Often, though, you'll also see it used as a giyougo to describe someone "rolling around on the floor", either in a state of frustration or lazy relaxation. Apparently, it can also be used as a gijougo that describes the state in which you've got something in your eye (sand, a bug, etc.) that causes your eye to feel uncomfortable/rough as it moves around.

In fact, the Ninjal corpus (link in Japanese) describes it as a rare example of a word that can act as all 5 types of onomatopoeia.

Example sentences:

6. ガシャン (gashan) – The sound of a smash, clash, whomp, or pow

ガシャン (gashan)

is a quite dramatic giongo that mimics the sound of something crashing or shattering, like glass breaking. You'll also see it used to describe the sound of a heavy blow (whack, wham) and—as shown in Sakamoto Days above—for the crash of a gun’s chamber being reloaded or disassembled.

Example sentences:

7. キラキラ (kira-kira): The sound (?) of something sparkling

キラキラ (kira-kira)

is a lovely gitaigo that describes something glittering or shining, like stars or jewelry.

Example sentences:

8. じーっ (jii) – The sound (?) of someone intently staring at something

じっと (jitto)

is a gitaigo that describes a silent, intense gaze—someone watching something closely without blinking. You'll also see it used for someone entirely dissociating and staring into space, remaining quiet/motionless, or stoically enduring a hardship.

Example sentences:

9. ピピピピピ (pipipipipi): The sound of something beeping

ピーピー (piipii)

was originally a giseigo that mimicked the sound of birds chirping, but with time, eventually came to also be used as a giongo mimicking things like the repetitive beep of a digital alarm, microwave, or timer.

You'll also see this used to describe the sound of someone whistling or whining.

Example sentences:

10. ドーン (doon): Japan's version of "Boom!"

ドーン (doon)

is an all-purpose giongo that can be used to describe pretty much any sort of explosion or loud impact: the explosion of fireworks, the roar of thunder, the voom of a rocket flying through the air, the whomp of a heavy hit, the dong released upon striking a heavy bell, the thud of something heavy hitting the floor.

It can also be used for generally dramatic bits of action—say, like an ex-hitman appearing behind you with a box cutter. Yikes.

Example sentences:

オノマトペ are things you feel... so learn them with manga!

Okay, so now you know a few of the most common Japanese onomatopoeia you’re going to see popping up in manga and anime—where do you go from here?

Seriously. You'll see this stuff all the time. As you see more onomatopoeia alongside more images, you'll eventually develop a feel for what nuance a particular onomatopoeia adds to a scene.

For example—say you took us up on that free preview of Sakamoto Days up above, and ended up binging like four chapters.

You'd see this:

There's a lot (a lot) of onomatopoeia in this manga, but that mid-right panel in particular has a wonderfully educational image: グイと (グイッと to further emphasize the suddenness of the action) describes the motion that occurs when something is pushed or pulled with a strong, sudden force.

Onomatopoeia are really something that you should feel, though... so, rather than adding a verbal definition, you can just pop that manga panel right into a flashcard:

(Migaku can also automatically generate explanations and example sentences for you, and you can manually add definitions from dictionaries, just in case you want a bit of context.)

After about three seconds of work, you'll have yourself a handy little flashcard that looks like this:

We'll periodically nudge you to review that flashcard over time, ensuring that you eventually commit it to memory.

Here's an entire blog post on how to learn Japanese with manga... but, otherwise:

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By the way: Forget these "Japanese onomatopoeia lists" if you want to learn Japanese

So, we've got an entire post on how to learn Japanese vocabulary.

The most important takeaway from that blog post is this:

So, while you're getting started, go ahead and use lists like this! They're a nice way to condense a bunch of information into something more easily digestible.

... but if you really want to learn Japanese, remember The Golden Rule of Language Learning™:

Ganbatte ne