The present American standards for normal hearing for audiometric purposes imply that the difference between audiometric reference zero for a 1000‐cps pure tone and audiometric reference zero for spondee words is 6 db (i.e., approximately 16 db SPL for a 1000‐cps tone and 22 db SPL for spondee words). An accumulation of evidence from several sources suggests, however, that the difference between the two thresholds is considerably larger than 6 db. The present study was designed to assess the effects of sex, ear, order of test presentation, method of threshold measurement, and degree of prior familiarity with spondee vocabulary on the difference between the threshold for a 1000‐cps tone and the threshold for spondee words, as measured with W‐1 recordings. Subjects were 126 young adult college students. Results indicate that the difference varies from 12 to 14 db, depending slightly on degree of prior familiarity with the spondee words, and on the method used to measure the pure tone threshold. The average speech threshold SPL in the present group agreed closely with the current standard reference level of 22 db, while the average 1000‐cps pure tone threshold SPL was 6 to 8 db lower than the current standard reference level of 16 db. [This research was supported by the U. S. Air Force under Contract No. AF 41 (657)‐185, monitored by the School of Aviation Medicine, USAF, Randolph Air Base, Texas.]