Most Annoying Sound

This is a list where simply reading it is already unpleasant, which is a reasonable sign the subject matter is doing its job.

The sounds divide into two kinds that annoy in completely different ways. Some are physically aversive — nails on a chalkboard, styrofoam squeaking, a fork scraping a plate — and there is decent evidence that the frequency range involved sits close to that of a human scream, which would explain why the reaction is instant, involuntary and impossible to talk yourself out of.

The others are annoying because of what they mean rather than how they sound. An alarm at six, a car alarm outside, a smoke detector with a dying battery at three in the morning: none of these are unpleasant tones in isolation. They are unpleasant situations wearing a sound.

That comes to thirty-two sounds, listed rather than played, and that turns out to be entirely sufficient. Everyone supplies the audio for themselves, usually within about half a second of reading the name.

The second group tends to win, which is worth noticing on the way through. It suggests that annoyance is mostly about helplessness rather than acoustics.