We examined whether 14-month-olds learn the mapping between a novel word and object in an associative-learning task when the forms differ minimally in only one segment where the crucial difference occurs in a stressed syllable. Fifty infants were presented with novel word-object pairings. Infants in one group heard the minimal difference in an initially stressed syllable, and the other group heard the minimal difference in a medially stressed syllable. Only those infants who were taught the medially stressed minimal pair detected a mismatch in the word-object pairing. These results demonstrate that 14-month-olds can succeed at minimal pair word learning when the critical information is presented in a stressed syllable, but importantly, only when particular acoustic cues are highlighted by syllable position--in this case, the medial position.