Auditory lexical decision entails speeded classification of spoken words and nonwords. Given its implicit requirement of full lexical processing, auditory lexical decision has wide applicability. Indeed, the paradigm is currently used to study basic processes in word recognition, the nature of the mental lexicon, effects of word frequency, neighbour effects and various other phenomena of isolated word perception. In addition, auditory lexical decision is commonly used as a measure of priming and context effects, and as an index of impairments following brain damage. This summary reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the task, and provides citations to prominent articles.