The range of hearing for a healthy young person is 15-20 hertz to 20,000 hertz. A normal middle-aged adult can hear from 12000 to 14000 hertz, losing ability to hear sounds above 15kHz at 40 and 12kHz after 50. Between the 80+ and 90+ age groups, most threshold changes are at only 500 Hz and 1 kHz but not at high frequencies. Noise-induced hearing loss usually makes it harder to hear lower frequencies, such as those between 3 kHz and 6 kHz, whereas presbycusis gradually erodes our ability to hear higher frequency sounds in general.
Human Sounds
Voice:
hum, grunt, mutter, chatter, yack or yak, blab, lisp, sneer, snicker, giggle, whimper, bawl, squeal, shriek, whoop (typical adult males: 85 to 180 Hz, adult females: 165 to 255 Hz.)
Nose and Mouth:
shush, whistle, smooch, cluck, smack, crunch, munch, gulp, spit, sputter, splutter, slobber, cough, sniff, sniffle, hiccup, huff, snort, snore, belch
Breathing sound frequency is between 50 and 3000 Hz. Wheezing in asthma increases the frequency. Lungs sound frequency is lies between 100-1200 Hz.
Hands:
pat, clap, slap, smack
Animal Sounds
Dogs:
woof, yip, yap, growl, snarl, howl (70-700 Hz)
Cats:
meow or miaow, mew, (20-150 Hz), purr (~22 Hz)
Birds:
chirp, cheep, tweet, peep, twitter, crow, squawk (0.5 - 6 kHz)
Insects:
buzz, chirp, hum (mosquito: ~17.4 kHz, crickets: 10 KHz)
Music:
drum, throb, thump, twang, plink, plunk, bong
Vehicle Sounds
Engines:
roar, hum, purr
Horns:
honk, beep
Exhaust pipes:
sputter, rumble
Brakes:
squeal, screech
Other Sounds
Explosions:
boom, bang, pop
Collisions:
crash, bang, clash, wham, smack, whomp, whump, thump, bump
High Speed:
zoom, whoosh, swoosh, zing
Actions:
zip, tap, click, clip, snip, knock, rap, bang, thwack, flap, smack, smash
Objects:
creak, squeak, pop, boing, sizzle, fizzle, flap
Groups of Objects:
rustle, clack, clunk, clank, jingle, rattle, clatter
(in the days of cave dwellers, a high frequency (>2KHz) rustle of leaves was a signal of danger)
Sirens:
blare, shriek
Alarms:
ding, buzz, beep, clang
Liquids:
squish, slush, burble, gurgle, trickle, glug, splatter, squirt, fizz, plop
Air:
puff, hiss, whistle, swoosh, whoosh
Electricity:
buzz, hum, zap