Abstract: The problems of lexicographical fixation of sound words (onomatopoeias) are revealed in the study. Here are described: phonosemantic principles of description of these language units of the German-Russian dictionary of onomatopoeias, specific features of this dictionary structure of the dictionary entry, criteria for selection of units. Universal and specific phonosemantic principles of comparision onomatopoeias in the bilingual dictionaries are revealed. The universal features include: acoustic features (Germ. bam-Rus. bam); phonemic identity (Germ. bah-Rus. ba); phonestheme identity (Germ. plumps-Rus.plyuh); phoneme-type identity (Germ. klapp-Rus. hlop). The specific features include: phonestheme linguistic specificity (Germ. phonestheme/kn/: knack (s), knick (s), Knall-Rus. Phonestheme/hr//tr/: hrust, tresk); sound imitative motivation and etymology: Germ. Die Klingenkreuzen"cross swords", measure strength (in a dispute) Rus. Obmenkolkostyami (the exchange of barbs) "dispute"). Possibilities of practical application of the dictionary in phonosemantics, stylistics, etymology as well as for translation and learning German as a foreign language are mentioned.