The clicking sound that a clock makes, often paired with 'tick' to describe the sound of a ticking clock.
Onomatopoeia—a word created to imitate a sound. 'Tick-tock' paired together became the standard description of clock sounds in English, especially after clock technology became widespread in the 1800s.
The phrase 'tick-tock' is so universal that it shows how all humans recognize patterns—even babies respond to the rhythm before they understand language, proving that some sounds speak directly to our brains.
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