The hypothesized ability of adult native speakers to understand linguistic ambiguity was tested. An approach developed to determine linguistic competence tested the ability of 90 participants in individual interviews to interpret sentences having the potential for multiple interpretations. The hypothesis was not supported by the data. A hierarchy of these abilities, however, did emerge. The observed hierarchy across age (7 years to adult) and education (second grade to college graduate student) included the understanding of: (1) two meanings of a word presented in unambiguous contexts; (2) lexical ambiguity and/or figurative language; (3) surface structure ambiguity and/or multiplicity of pronoun referents; and (4) deep structure ambiguity. (Author/CFM)