Several soil samples were used to study how the characteristics of natural organic matter (NOM) affect sorption of organic compounds. These soils contains different amounts and types of NOM. Aromaticity of NOM (percentage of aromatic carbons) was determined from solid-state CPMAS 13C NMR spectra and the soil effective polarity was computed from the equation developed by Xing et al. Naphthalene was used to examine the sorption characteristics of NOM. Both aromaticity and polarity of NOM strongly affected sorption of naphthalene. Old NOM showed higher affinity than that in the surface, young soils. Sorption increased with increasing aromaticity and decreasing polarity. Thus, the sorption coefficients of organic contaminants cannot be accurately predicted without some consideration of NOM characteristics.