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sound_effects

πŸ“… Updated:2026-07-24
πŸ•’ Created:2014-03-11
πŸ†” ID:4691

Description

In visual entertainment, sound effects are used as a method of storytelling or making a creative point without dialogue.

Table of contents [#top]

What are sound effects?

  • A type of effect that represents an event, or action through sound, or a representation of sound. [sub]A sound effect can represent an action, even if that action is not known to produce a sound.[/sub]
Textual sound effects
Sound effects represented through text, and the primary focus of the `sound_effects` tag.

Categories

  • onomatopoeia - Sounds represented through words (e.g. "Honk", "Boom", "Meow").
Approximated sound effects
Sounds represented through approximated, or generic spellings (e.g. "Bzzzt", "Kerploosh", "Krrsh", "Splsh")
  • vowelless_sound_effect - There is not a single tag to represent all approximated sounds. The best way to access approximated sounds is through this tag, or a modified form tag.
Audible sound effects
Audible sound effects are not yet supported through this tag, but could be supported in the future. Many common sounds can be represented in both text, and audible forms.
  • Sound effects represented through an audio track. A sound effect should be more than a character speaking.
  • These should never be tagged as onomatopoeia, or an approximated sound effect tag.

Audible tags

Not all of these are actual sound effects.

Tagging guide ^[#taghelp]

Tagging guide
  • Sound effects are tagged based on their form, or their related common theme.
  • Always try to tag more specifically than `sound_effects`, or `onomatopoeia` if possible. Use the context as a guide.
Tagging methods
Less helpful tagging
[quote]
Using `licking sound_effects` to describe licking as a sound effect.
[/quote]
More helpful tagging
[quote]
Using `licking licking_sound_effect` to describe licking as a sound effect.
[/quote]
Most helpful tagging
[quote]
Using `licking licking_sound_effect`and `onomatopoeia` ("Lick"), or `vowelless_sound_effect` ("Lk") to describe licking as a sound effect.
[/quote]

Introduction to forms ^[#formintro]

The default, or standardized spelling of a sound effect is known as the base form for that sound effect. An alternate spelling of a base form is known as a modified form.
Modified form tags may be found here. Detailed explanations on usage may be found in their respective wikis.

How to identify sound effects ^[#identification]

Sound effects represent actions, sounds, and often both.
  • Look for isolated text near characters or objects, and determine its purpose.
  • Artists will often format sound effects, and vocalizations differently than dialogue. Look for differences in how the text looks.
  • Sound effects may also be embedded in the dialogue itself. It does not matter where the artist puts the sound effect, this tag can still be used.
[section=Onomatopoeia identification] ^[#onomatopoeia]
Onomatopoeia are sound effects that resemble or are based on words.
For tagging purposes, a word includes dictionary words ("Buzz", "Huff", "Lick", "Twitch"), slang words ("Plap", "Shlick"), constructed or modified words ("Glorp", "Shlop", "Splurt", "Thoom"), and multiple word sound effects ("Horny squeak"). The subject matter of the word doesn't matter (though be careful with tagging vocalizations). Most words can theoretically function as an onomatopoeia.

Tagging criteria

Use the following criteria to determine if a sound effect is an onomatopoeia.
  • Many vocalizations do not count as sound effects. For exceptions, see Vocalizations section.
  • Most animal noises, and breathing noises in their proper forms count as onomatopoeia.
  • Vowelless forms are never onomatopoeia.
  • The form is not excessively garbled (contains random, non-sensible letters).
  • The form is a fully formed word, formed with multiple words, or appears like it could pass off as a word.
    • Onomatopoeia may contain extra letters than it should have ("Mooo", "Riiip", "Sluurrrp"), but should not be tagged when the form is missing letters that it should have ("Bzzz", "Gurgl", "Swsh").
    • Alternate spellings are usually okay to tag as onomatopoeia ("Slurk", "Shlurk", and "Schlurk" are all onomatopoeia).
Vocalization identification
A vocalization is a sound, or representation of a sound, that is vocalized (produced by vocal chords), but does not form proper words (would not fit into a speech theme such as dialogue, or inner_monologue).
  • By default vocalizations do not qualify as sound effects, with the exception being those that are represented by onomatopoeic words.
    • If the term is better described as a grunt, laugh, or moan, the `sound_effects` tag probably doesn't apply. Literal representation of vocalizations count as both (such as "Giggle" in the example below).

Example

  • Most animal noises ("Chirp", "Meow", "Woof", etc) function the same way being both onomatopoeia, and vocalizations.

How to tag sound effects ^[#howtotag]

Knowing common synonyms can be helpful
  • Action sound effects are often stored in umbrella tags for a common action. See pulling_sound_effect
    • Actions that do not have their own dedicated sound effect tag (i.e. throbbing) are usually stored in a sound effect umbrella category based on the nature of the sound.
For a list of examples, see Sound categories
Use the site's tag autocomplete to make finding tags easy
  • The common form can often be found by typing the unknown sound effect into the tag box and seeing what pops up.
    • Modified spellings are usually still stored in the base form. Do not worry too much if there are extra, or missing letters.
    • Vowel shifts are often stored in a single tag for simplicity.

Examples

[quote]
[/quote]
  • Use splurt to represent both "Splrt", and "Splurrt".
  • Use bwomp to represent both "Bwump" and "Bwomph". Do note that fwomp is a different form.
Check the tag group
For a mostly complete list, see tag_group:sound_effects.

Action tagging ^[#actiontagging]

This section describes how to tag actions when there are sound effects present.
Identify the purpose
  • Ask yourself if the form represents contact, movement, or something else, and determine what action is being represented.
Tagging guidelines
  • Action tags may be tagged based on sound effect usage in most cases.
    • Complex actions such as sex are not taggable if they are offscreen, but most lewd noises can be tagged in any situation.
  • A sound effect can be associated with several action concepts that are related in an artistic sense, but not a tagging sense.

Example

This image shows a kissing, and a swallowing sound effect being used as an interpretive mechanic. For the sake of simplicity, sound effect concepts can be used in a literal, or interpretive application.
thumb #2390655 This should neither be tagged as kissing, or swallowing, but it still contains a kissing, and swallowing sound effect.

Creating new tags ^[#newtags]

Factors that should be considered before starting a new sound effect tag:
  • Does a tag already exist?
    • Keep in mind that the tag used to store a sound effect may not be spelled the same as it appears in an image. Lookup tables are provided in the tag group if unsure.
Tag name criteria
  • Choose an appropriate tag format. See Tag formats
  • Avoid using a non-standardized spelling as the tag name.
General guidelines
A sound effect form may receive a dedicated tag if:
  • It consists of a form that does not seem like a one-off usage for a particular image, or used exclusively by a single artist, who is likely intentionally trying to be unique through their sound effect usage. Try to identify relevant base forms that have a more common usage instead.
  • It is a dictionary word. Artists cannot claim sole usage to a word they didn't invent. It is generally okay to create tags for sound effects based on real words even if the subject matter is obscure or not drawn very often.
    • If it is a verb, or closely related to a verb or action, consider if it should be part of an action sound effect tag. One may already exist!
    • An action sound effect of the form `<verb>ing_sound_effect` has the added benefit of including synonyms to that action in the tag that would not be included if the base form was used instead.
    • Some sound effect forms get stored in action tags instead for convenience, this is especially true for pure onomatopoeic concepts such as clicking and buzzing.
Avoid creating new tags that are too similar to existing sound effects tags. You may be dealing with a derived form, and derived forms are usually stored in the tag for the base form. Dedicated tags for derived forms should be created sparingly.
It is recommended that you try to fill in a new tag with at least a few entries if you are going to make one.

Advanced techniques ^[#lettershiftintro]

Introduction to Letter shifting
Letter shifting refers to a phenomena where the base spelling of a sound effect is modified to produce a different phonetic sound while the usage of the sound effect remains identical. Vowel shifts tend to end up stored under a common tag, while consonant shifts tend to be stored as separate tags. Whether or not similarly spelled terms should be kept separate, or combined depends on several factors including how each sound effect tends to be used. A shift in this context refers to one letter, being swapped out for another letter.

How to handle letter shifts

  • The best method of handling letter shifts is to use the site's autocomplete. Most of these letter shifted terms have preexisting tags.
  • If it looks like a sound is a variation of another form, it probably is.

Lookup table (Under construction)

This table contains established tags for various letter shift forms.
[table]
[thead][tr][th]Sound effect[/th][th] Sound effect combinations[/th][th] Similar sound effects[/th][/tr][/thead]
[tbody]
[tr][td] blorp [/td][td] "Blurp" (when not used for burping) [/td][td]"Blort", "Glorp"[/td][/tr]
[tr][td] blort [/td][td] "Blurt" [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] glomp_(sound_effect) [/td][td] "Glump", "Glomf" [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] glorp [/td][td] "Glurp" [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] glunk_(sound_effect) [/td][td] "Glonk" [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] glurb [/td][td] "Glorb" [/td][td] "Blorb" [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] glurt [/td][td] "Glort" [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] slurk [/td][td] "Shlerk", "Shlurk", "Slork" [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] slosh [/td][td] "Shlosh", "Slish", "Slush" [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] splash [/td][td] "Splish", "Splosh", "Sploosh" [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[/tbody]
[/table]

Tag Formats ^[#tagformat]

Tag formats
[table][thead][tr][th]Format[/th][th]Format information[/th][/tr][/thead]
[tbody]
[tr][td]Unformatted[/td][td]Sound effect tags that don't end in -ing, if not functioning also as an action tag, shall be treated as if they have the `_(sound_effect)` suffix. It is recommended that a sound effect tag have a suffix.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Ends in `-ing`[/td][td]These are verbs, whether they refer to sounds, actions, or both.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]`_(sound_effect)`[/td][td]The base form is the same as the tag name (e.g. `squeeze_(sound_effect)` is only used for "Squeeze", or a very similar form). [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]`_sound_effect`[/td][td]A group of sound effects pertaining to a particular action, or concept (e.g. `kissing_sound_effect` is used for any synonym for kissing including "Kiss", "Chu", and "Smooch").[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]`_noises`[/td][td]A group of sounds pertaining to a particular event, or common theme. These tags support both audible and textual sound effects.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]`_onomatopoeia`[/td][td]This format refers to groups (usually large) of onomatopoeia that share a common theme.[/td][/tr]
[/tbody]
[/table]
[#taggroup]
Sound effect tags
For a more complete list, see tag_group:sound_effects.

Sound effect forms ^[#forms]

Modifier tags ^
These tags describe some aspect of the sound effect form. These tags are useful for finding sound effects that are different than their expected spelling.

Basic sounds ^

Basic sounds are sounds that exclusively refer to their respective sounds. These may be used whenever some variation of the sound term is present in the image.

Sound categories ^[#categories]

The list of known sound effects associated with a verb. Keep in mind that not all usages will be consistent with the verb, and some verbs may have several tags associated with them.
General purpose verbs
Sound effect tags of the format `<verb>_sound_effect` refer to words that are representative of the verb, and include synonyms of those terms. These tags should always use verbs that end in the present tense `-ing` if possible.
[table][thead][tr][th] Sound effect tag[/th][th] Sound effects under this tag[/th][th]Extra information[/th][/tr][/thead]
[tbody]
[tr][td] biting_sound_effect [/td][td] bite, chomp, nom, nibble, om nom nom [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] expansion_sound_effect [/td][td] bloat, bwomp (sometimes), fwomp (sometimes), swell [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] gripping_sound_effect [/td][td] hold, grab, grip, grope [/td][td] General grabbing / holding themes [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] kissing_sound_effect [/td][td] kiss, smooch, chu [/td][td] This is sometimes used for light touching, or frottage [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] licking_sound_effect [/td][td] lick, lap [/td][td] licking [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] pulling_sound_effect [/td][td] pull, tug, yank, drag? [/td][td] Various pulling themes [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] rubbing_sound_effect [/td][td] rub, grind [/td][td] rubbing, grinding [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] scratching_sound_effect [/td][td] claw, scratch, scritch [/td][td] scratching [/td][/tr]
[/tbody][/table]
Special themes
Special theme tags are sound effect categories that are better represented by adjectives, or nouns instead of verbs.
[table][thead][tr][th] Sound effect tag[/th][th] Sound effects under this tag[/th][/tr][/thead]
[tbody]
[tr][td] atmospheric_sound_effect [/td][td] Words associated with the general mood, or ambiance of the scene (doom, menacing_(meme)) [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] expressive_sound_effect [/td][td] Words associated with emotions, or highlight a facial action. (blink?, blush, grin, smile, wink) [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] frictional_sound_effect [/td][td] Words associated with friction, or the effects of friction (fap, rubbing group (grind, rub), sliding group (shlick, shlip, slick, slide, slip)).[/td][/tr]
[tr][td] rotational_sound_effect [/td][td] Words associated with turning, or rotating (rotate, spin, twirl, twist) [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] thickness_sound_effect [/td][td] Words associated with mass, thickness, or fat (bulk, chub, fat, plump, thicc) [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] velocity_sound_effect [/td][td] Words associated with moving quickly, or slowly (woosh, fwoosh, zoom, zip (in certain situations)[/td][/tr]
[/tbody][/table]

Foreign sound effects ^[#foreign]

Include here information on how to translate sounds effects in different languages into their English equivalent tags.
Japanese sound effects
This section is intended to show text used for commonly appearing sound effects, and their probable meaning.
[table][thead][tr][th] Katakana [/th][th]Hiragana[/th][th] Text meaning [/th][th] Extra information[/th][/tr][/thead]
[tbody]
[tr][td] ドキドキ [/td][td] どきどき [/td][td] heartbeat [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] チγƒ₯ [/td][td] けゅ [/td][td] kissing (kissing_sound_effect) [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] パンパン [/td][td] ぱんぱん [/td][td] plap, pap, slap, etc. [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] クチγƒ₯/グチγƒ₯ [/td][td] くけゅ/ぐけゅ [/td][td] shlick (vaginal_masturbation) [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] γ‚ΉγƒΌ/スーッ [/td][td] すー/すーっ [/td][td] sleeping [/td][td] Refers to a soft breathing noise similar to a sigh associated with sleeping. [/td][/tr]
[tr][td] ビクビク [/td][td] びくびく [/td][td] twitch, tremble, shiver [/td][td] [/td]This is more of a sudden twitch or shudder.[/tr]
[tr][td] フル/プル/ブルッ [/td][td] ちる/ぷる/ぢるっ [/td][td] shake, tremble, shiver, nod, shaking head [/td][td][/td][/tr]
[tr][td] ビγƒ₯ル [/td][td] びゅる [/td][td] spurt, splurt [/td][td] [/td][/tr]
[/tbody][/table]
[#soundgroup]
Sound groups
Action sound group
The largest sound group containing most verbs and onomatopoeia.
Active sound group
Contains the active verbs (verbs that relate to a visual, or physical change in state).
  • Pull, Tug, Grab
  • Shake (Shiver, Tremble)
  • Slap (Shlap, Smack)
  • Twitch (Throb)
  • Wag
Passive sound group
Contains the passive verbs (verbs that relate to a passive state).
  • Loom
  • Stare (Glare)
Animal sound group
Contains all of the animal vocalizations. These are almost always an onomatopoeia.
Bodily sound group
Contains most sounds related to consumption, digestion, and the natural release of gas (burping / fart).
Breathing sound group
Contains sounds related to breathing (inhale and exhale). These are sometimes present inside a speech bubble, or in between dialogue.
  • Gasp
  • Huff (Pant)
  • Phew
  • Sigh
  • Wheeze
Fluidic sound group
Contains sounds related to liquids, and behaviors of liquids. This will contain most ejaculate sounds.
  • Bleed
  • Drip (Dribble)
  • Drool
  • Schlick (Schluk, Schlk, Shlk, Shlorp)
  • Splash (Splish, Sploosh)
  • Splurt (Splrt, Spurt, Sprt)
  • Squirt
  • Squish (in the context of a fluid)
Sexual sound group
Contains sounds related to sex, and masturbation.
  • Fap (Fp)
  • Plap (and its many variants)
  • Shlick (and its many variants)
Vocalization
Vocalizations may not necessarily fall under sound effects, but they often don't fit the concept of dialogue either. They are sounds that are produced by the voice. Some examples may be more consistent with a sound effect, and others may be more consistent with dialogue.
[#faq]
Frequently Asked Questions
[quote]
Q. Why is sound effect tagging important?
A. There are two methods artists use to depict actions in a static image. An action may be depicted using visual details, or by using effects (such as motion, and sound effects). Sound effect tags allow users to find actions that are based on visual details, based on sound effects, or a mixture of both. Often just pairing an action tag with the sound effects base tag will produce unpredictable results.
There are more reasons than that:
[i]- Sound effects are a major form of narrative element that influences how images are tagged.
- Tag navigation is improved when organization is improved. Not all sound effects are created equal, and some hide the presence of other sound effects quite effectively.
- Some users love images with lots of sound effects in them, while others prefer to keep things simple, and uncluttered. People are different.
[/i]
[/quote]
[quote]
Q. Why vowelless?
A. Vowelless is a distinct form of sound effect, and the most recognizable example of approximated sounds. There are sound effects that are exclusively vowelless, and many forms are too inconsistent to have dedicated sound effect tags on their own, so it only makes sense to have a place for these tags. Additionally, there is a lesser known theme known as a vocalization that also commonly produces vowelless forms. These forms rarely get treated as sound effects, and users should know how to tell vowelless forms apart. See vowelless for more information.
[/quote]

See also ^

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