An ideophone is a non-inflecting and non-governing word – thus, a particle or an adverb – which designates a situation holistically as a type. i.e. without articulating its composition. The situation is typically perceptible or at least represented as if it were perceptible.

Example: woosh.

An ideophone is a holophrastic word: it conveys a minimum message which may be explicated, but which is left inarticulate. It conveys a proposition on any other referent than the speaker, including somebody else in the speech situation, or on any referent, including the speaker, in a different situation.