History Main / RecognizableBySound

** In "O.K. at the Gunfight Corral", Hoggish Greedly's latest scheme takes him and the pursuing team to the Old West. While spying on Greedly in a saloon, Wheeler notices him cheating in a poker game, and [[HotBlooded unable to hold his tongue]], announces it aloud. Greedly instantly realizes what just happened.

* ''Film/HomewardBoundTheIncredibleJourney'': Chance is heard barking from a distance.

* The gluttons in ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' are rendered indistinguishable from each other by penitential emaciation. Yet, upon hearing the voice of a particular glutton, Dante can recognize every feature of that face lost in Purgatory belongs to his childhood friend, Forese Donati.

* One time during an Wrestling/{{Edge}} vs. Wrestling/MattHardy feud, Hardy's entrance music played while Edge was in the ring, causing Edge to panic and the audience to erupt - but then Edge started laughing. Hardy wasn't there, it was just Edge trolling the audience.

* ''Series/CSIMiami'': While at a crime scene, Callie is approached by someone behind her who holds a gun to the back of her head and pulls back the hammer. In the Lab's gun vault, she has Eric do the same with a series of firearms, and she determines which type the unknown person had by listening to the number and sharpness of the clicks as Eric pulls the hammers. She encounters the gun-holder again, they have a conversation, and as she walks away, she hears the tell-tale clicks and turns around just in time to see the person commit suicide.

* ''Franchise/DocSavage'': Doc sometimes gave off a eerie trilling sound. Several times his men heard the sound when they were in dire straits, letting them know that Doc was nearby.

Compare: SignatureSoundEffect, SignatureRoar

Compare/Contrast: SoundCodedForYourConvenience

* In ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'', Captain Mancuso and some of his men have boarded the titular Russian sub to accept Captain Ramius' defection when a torpedo wooshes overhead. Seaman Jones, Mancuso's sonarman, can tell from the torpedo's pitch that it's Russian.
** Throughout the movie, Jonesy can recognize a ''lot'' of things by sound. When he first hears ''Red October'' approaching, he guesses that she's a ''Typhoon''-class sub, and the computer confirms this. Later on, after ''Red October'' disappears with her new silent propulsion system, he hears what the computer identifies as a "magma displacement" and figures that the sound is actually artificial. This allows him to put two and two together and figure out about the new silent propulsion system and how to track ''Red October''.

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}: Yeerk [[DisintegratorRay Dracon Beams]] are based off Andalite Shredder Beams. As such they sound alike. However they also sound different enough for an Andalite to recognize the difference. In one battle, Ax specifically notes this, which makes the sound of Shredder fire serve as FiveSecondForeshadowing that a team of Andalites is about to show up.

* In the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' novel ''The Haunted Car'', main character Mitchell claims to be able to recognise any car by the sound of its engine.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': ComicBook/SteveTrevor can recognize Diana by voice alone, but will not call out an identifying name until he's got enough context to know what identity he should be using.

* Each person sound different, even if they make the same movements like walking or breathing. This is how blind people are capable to recognize one person from others even without hear them talking.

* Jack Killian from ''Series/MidnightCaller'' never forget a voice, which comes in handy when criminals call the station or when he meets callers in person.

* In ''ComicBook/Superboy1994'', ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfMetropolis'' and ''[[ComicBook/JimmyOlsen Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen]]'' Guardian can generally tell if the ComicBook/NewsboyLegion are about by listening for their "pet" Angry Charlie's signature G[-R-]OIK vocalization.