The Rhyme Test of speech discrimination was used to study the relationship between speech discrimination scores and aging in 55 elderly adults. Test-retest reliability of the scores, the relationships of the scores obtained under test conditions of quiet and of competing noise, and the agreement between the scores and the subjects' self-estimate of hearing handicap in everyday listening situations were examined. Rhyme Test scores tended to decrease as age increased, particularly in the age group over 60, for the test in quiet as well as in noise. Correlations between test scores and aging were higher for the quiet condition than for the noisy condition. Test-retest correlations in the quiet condition were high, despite retest intervals as long as nine months. Subjects' self-estimates of hearing handicap correlated with their speech discrimination scores.