# 1 Corinthians in Chinese — vocabulary profile

> 1 Corinthians uses 954 distinct Chinese characters and 1,453 distinct words across 12,262 characters and 437 verses of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). 62.9% of its word tokens are HSK 1-3, ranking it 15th of 66 books from easiest to hardest by that measure.

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Chapters | 16 |
| Verses | 437 |
| Chinese characters | 12,262 |
| Distinct characters | 954 |
| Word tokens | 8,546 |
| Distinct words | 1,453 |
| Average verse | 28 characters |
| HSK 1-3 word tokens | 62.9% |
| HSK 1-6 word tokens | 74.5% |
| Not in HSK 1-9 | 18.5% |
| Difficulty rank | 15 of 66 (1 = easiest) |
| Reading time | 47 min at 260 chars/min |
| Testament | New Testament |

## Most frequent words in this book

| # | Word | Occurrences |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 人 | 151 |
| 2 | 神 | 107 |
| 3 | 有 | 95 |
| 4 | 要 | 87 |
| 5 | 说 | 81 |
| 6 | 主 | 76 |
| 7 | 若 | 76 |
| 8 | 叫 | 63 |
| 9 | 基督 | 55 |
| 10 | 事 | 47 |
| 11 | 作 | 41 |
| 12 | 就是 | 34 |
| 13 | 一 | 29 |
| 14 | 智慧 | 28 |
| 15 | 属 | 27 |
| 16 | 乃是 | 27 |
| 17 | 来 | 26 |
| 18 | 用 | 26 |
| 19 | 能 | 26 |
| 20 | 弟兄们 | 24 |
| 21 | 有人 | 24 |
| 22 | 吃 | 24 |
| 23 | 给 | 23 |
| 24 | 信 | 23 |
| 25 | 不要 | 23 |
| 26 | 像 | 23 |
| 27 | 知道 | 23 |
| 28 | 方言 | 23 |
| 29 | 复活 | 23 |
| 30 | 妻子 | 23 |
| 31 | 一样 | 22 |
| 32 | 不能 | 22 |
| 33 | 得 | 22 |
| 34 | 去 | 22 |
| 35 | 因 | 21 |
| 36 | 死 | 21 |
| 37 | 必 | 20 |
| 38 | 并且 | 20 |
| 39 | 身子 | 20 |
| 40 | 肢体 | 20 |
| 41 | 各人 | 19 |
| 42 | 岂不 | 19 |
| 43 | 灵 | 19 |
| 44 | 先知 | 19 |
| 45 | 丈夫 | 19 |
| 46 | 行 | 18 |
| 47 | 中间 | 17 |
| 48 | 不可 | 17 |
| 49 | 福音 | 17 |
| 50 | 当 | 17 |

## Words found in 1 Corinthians and nowhere else

波罗的 倒毙 审察 分门别类 设若 隐情 不复 不朽 做主 神奥 不情愿 主张 再嫁 离去 身分 打场

## Chapters, easiest first

| Chapter | HSK 1-3 | Verses | Characters |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 Corinthians 10 | 67.8% | 33 | 833 |
| 1 Corinthians 3 | 66.2% | 23 | 649 |
| 1 Corinthians 11 | 65.8% | 34 | 851 |
| 1 Corinthians 9 | 65% | 27 | 860 |
| 1 Corinthians 8 | 64.2% | 13 | 395 |
| 1 Corinthians 15 | 64.1% | 58 | 1,531 |
| 1 Corinthians 5 | 64.1% | 13 | 431 |
| 1 Corinthians 4 | 63.8% | 21 | 678 |
| 1 Corinthians 16 | 63.2% | 24 | 592 |
| 1 Corinthians 14 | 62.4% | 40 | 1,127 |
| 1 Corinthians 2 | 62% | 16 | 496 |
| 1 Corinthians 7 | 60.7% | 40 | 1,221 |
| 1 Corinthians 6 | 60.2% | 20 | 598 |
| 1 Corinthians 13 | 59.7% | 13 | 354 |
| 1 Corinthians 12 | 58.9% | 31 | 783 |
| 1 Corinthians 1 | 57.6% | 31 | 863 |

Page: https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/books/1-corinthians · Read it: https://chinese-bible.com/en/1-corinthians

## Method

- Text: 和合本 (Chinese Union Version), simplified script — public domain
- Words: forward maximum matching against CC-CEDICT (this site's own segmentation)
- HSK levels: HSK 3.0 levels from the complete-hsk-vocabulary list; band 7 covers HSK 7-9
- Reading times: 260 characters a minute (an assumption)
- Computed: 2026-09-22

These are reproducible counts over a public-domain text, not a peer-reviewed study. Difficulty ranks are one stated formula, not a validated readability score.


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- Definitions: CC-CEDICT, licensed CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
- If you share this file onward, keep this notice and share alike.
- Character data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License / LGPL).
- Bible text: public domain — 和合本 · World English Bible · Louis Segond 1910.
- Built with https://chinese-bible.com