Background:
The present study aimed to develop and standardize a phonemically balanced bisyllabic word test in Tamil for adult listeners.

Material and methods:
In total, 1015 bisyllabic Tamil words were collected from different sources; 20 Tamil speakers rated the words for familiarity and 5 experts validated the content. Based on the familiarity rating and content validation, 760 words were shortlisted for phonemic balancing. Then 25 phonemically-balanced lists were prepared with 25 words in each. The prepared lists were presented to 100 normal-hearing listeners at 40 dB SL in quiet, and 30 listeners in noise at −5 dB SNR for the standardization process. The lists were also presented at different sensation levels (SLs) in quiet to 30 listeners to obtain a psychometric function.

Results:
The mean speech identification scores (SISs) in adults was 99.8% in quiet. The results revealed no significant difference in SIS across the 25 word lists, indicative of list equivalency. The scores increased as the level increased from 10 to 40 dB SL for all the lists, suggesting homogeneity in difficulty and audibility. However, in noise, only 23 lists were equivalent to each other.

Conclusions:
All the test lists can be utilized for testing during audiological evaluation in quiet, and 23 word lists are useful in noise.