Ch-ch-ch.

n.  a highly-evolved, intelligent lichen with a cloudlike body, living “in the very center of a hollow world” (Richard A. Lupoff, “Lights! Camera! Shub-Niggurath!”, The New Lovecraft Circle).

<Ch-ch-ch was minding its own business, keeping its resident birds, insects, ponds, fishes and small reptiles happy.  Suddenly Ch-ch-ch felt itself punctured.  It was a hell of a shock, although it probably didn’t exactly hurt Ch-ch-ch.  —Richard A. Lupoff, “Lights! Camera! Shub-Niggurath!”, The New Lovecraft Circle.>

ch-ch-ch.

n.  a shooing sound, as one might make at a stray animal.

<One of the boy soldiers, seeing her distress, left his place in the line and shooed the beggar woman away.  He made a loud “ch-ch-ch” sound, as if the woman was one of the scruffy dogs slinking bout the garbage pail.  —Scott Landers, Coswell’s Guide to Tambralinga: A Novel.>

n.  a stutter, as described by Michael Faraday in Michael Faraday: Physics and Faith by Colin Archibald Russell.


n.  a vocalized beat to a rhythm one hears in one’s own head.

<Clare was making ch-ch-ch sounds between her teeth, accompanying her mental music.  —Julia Spencer-Fleming, A Fountain Filled With Blood.>

n.  the cicada-like chatter of the Common Cicadabird, as described in A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia by Morten Strange.


n.  the harsh repeated call of the Spot-Winged Parrotlet in flight, as described in A Guide to the Birds of Columbia by Steven L. Hilty.

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