General Knowledge
Name That Sound Quiz
From the Wilhelm Scream to whale songs — how well do you really know the sounds around you?
From the Wilhelm Scream to whale songs — how well do you really know the sounds around you?
Sound surrounds us every moment of every day — from the iconic Wilhelm Scream echoing through 400+ films to the haunting 52-hertz whale singing alone in the Pacific. The loudest sound ever recorded was the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, which reached an almost unimaginable 172 dB at the source and was heard by people over 3,000 miles away. Whether it's the click of a pistol shrimp snapping its claw (218 dB — louder than a gunshot) or the gentle purr of a domestic cat, sound tells stories that our other senses can't.
Each round presents 10 randomized questions from a pool of 50, with four multiple-choice options and instant feedback after every answer. Your final score comes with a performance tier and shareable results.
This quiz covers iconic sound effects from film and gaming, nature's most remarkable acoustic feats, the science of decibels and the Doppler effect, legendary audio logos from Nokia to Intel to Windows 95, and the strange biology behind knuckle cracking, cat purring, and ASMR. You'll come away with a richer appreciation for the sonic world hiding in plain — or rather plain hearing — sight.
The Wilhelm Scream is a famous stock sound effect — a distinctive male scream — first recorded in 1951 for the film Distant Drums. It became a Hollywood in-joke after sound designer Ben Burtt popularized its use in Star Wars (1977) and Indiana Jones. It has since appeared in over 400 films and TV shows, often used as an easter egg by sound designers who know the tradition.
The loudest animal overall is the sperm whale, whose clicks reach up to 230 dB underwater. However, among land animals, the howler monkey is the loudest — its calls carry up to 3 miles (5 km) through dense jungle. The pistol shrimp produces the loudest snapping sound of any animal, hitting 218 dB when its claw snaps shut and creates a cavitation bubble hot enough to stun or kill prey.
The eruption of Krakatoa in August 1883 is the loudest sound in recorded history. It generated a pressure wave estimated at 172 decibels at a distance of 160 km, and the sound was heard as far as 4,800 km (nearly 3,000 miles) away — from Australia to Rodrigues Island near Mauritius. The explosion circled the globe as an atmospheric pressure wave multiple times and was recorded by barometers worldwide.
Last updated: March 2026