This study was concerned with the comprehension of high-frequency multimeaning words on a picture vocabulary test by hearing and hearing-impaired students. As expected, hearing students performed significantly better than hearing-impaired students in selecting primary and secondary meanings of multi-meaning words. Both groups also chose primary meanings more often than secondary ones. In addition, both groups' ability to select two meanings of words did not improve with their ages. Finally, a strong correlation between test performance and reading achievement level was found. This indicates that the better readers also have better knowledge of vocabulary words. Due to the prevalence of multimeaning words in beginning reading materials, the findings warrant consideration in teaching several common meanings of words to students within a depth-of-vocabulary-knowledge framework.
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