wanwan

Wanwan is an onomatopoeic representation of a dog’s bark used in East Asian languages. In Japanese, the sound is written as ワンワン and read "wan-wan," appearing frequently in manga, anime, children’s books, and everyday speech to indicate that a dog is barking. It functions as a characteristic sound effect in storytelling and dialogue.

In Chinese-language contexts, the common rendering for a dog’s bark is 汪汪 (wangwang). The romanized form "wanwan" may be encountered in non-standard transliterations or media aiming to convey the same barking notion, but it is not the standard Mandarin representation. The distinction reflects how different languages encode animal sounds using their own phonetic systems.

Cultural usage of wanwan spans educational and entertainment settings. It is often employed to convey sound effects for dogs, to help young readers or listeners recognize animal vocalizations, and, in some cases, to name a dog character in children’s media or branding. Although primarily an onomatopoeic cue, wanwan can appear in various formats where animal sounds are depicted or dramatized.

See also: Onomatopoeia in Japanese; Animal sound symbolism.