Word imageability, a semantic variable, in naming by beginning readers of E
nglish is well documented particularly with poor readers naming high imagea
ble words more accurately than low imageable words. The present study exami
ned the role of imageability on word naming by 20 good and 20 poor beginnin
g readers as a function of orthographic transparency by utilizing the pecul
iarities of the transparent Turkish writing system. Neither good nor poor b
eginning readers show any evidence of imageability for Turkish suggesting t
hat the contribution of imageability to word naming may indeed be determine
d by orthographic transparency. Implications of these findings are discusse
d.