Abstract.We report on a measurement of the lifetime of the 1414 keV state in 232Th by the Doppler-shift recoildistance method. This 4 + state shows all characteristics of a nearly-harmonic two-phonon 7-vibrational excitation. The result for the B(E2) value obtained from the lifetime, --3.2 _+ 0.7 ps, is in agreement with an earlier estimate of the collectivity from Coulomb-excitation yields and supports the interpretation of the 1414keV state as a two-phonon 7-vibrational excitation.