# Esther in Chinese — vocabulary profile

> Esther uses 724 distinct Chinese characters and 907 distinct words across 5,858 characters and 165 verses of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). 54.8% of its word tokens are HSK 1-3, ranking it 55th of 66 books from easiest to hardest by that measure.

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Chapters | 10 |
| Verses | 165 |
| Chinese characters | 5,858 |
| Distinct characters | 724 |
| Word tokens | 4,324 |
| Distinct words | 907 |
| Average verse | 36 characters |
| HSK 1-3 word tokens | 54.8% |
| HSK 1-6 word tokens | 69.1% |
| Not in HSK 1-9 | 25.8% |
| Difficulty rank | 55 of 66 (1 = easiest) |
| Reading time | 23 min at 260 chars/min |
| Testament | Old Testament |

## Most frequent words in this book

| # | Word | Occurrences |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 王 | 171 |
| 2 | 人 | 97 |
| 3 | 哈 | 68 |
| 4 | 末底改 | 61 |
| 5 | 犹大 | 59 |
| 6 | 以斯帖 | 55 |
| 7 | 曼 | 55 |
| 8 | 说 | 46 |
| 9 | 各 | 39 |
| 10 | 王后 | 33 |
| 11 | 日 | 31 |
| 12 | 随 | 28 |
| 13 | 省 | 28 |
| 14 | 亚哈 | 24 |
| 15 | 鲁 | 24 |
| 16 | 事 | 22 |
| 17 | 要 | 22 |
| 18 | 亚 | 21 |
| 19 | 书 | 20 |
| 20 | 珊 | 20 |
| 21 | 城 | 20 |
| 22 | 必 | 20 |
| 23 | 见 | 20 |
| 24 | 就是 | 19 |
| 25 | 族 | 19 |
| 26 | 面前 | 17 |
| 27 | 给 | 17 |
| 28 | 若 | 16 |
| 29 | 有 | 15 |
| 30 | 用 | 15 |
| 31 | 行 | 15 |
| 32 | 大 | 15 |
| 33 | 求 | 15 |
| 34 | 月 | 15 |
| 35 | 一切 | 14 |
| 36 | 实 | 13 |
| 37 | 吩咐 | 13 |
| 38 | 使 | 13 |
| 39 | 照 | 13 |
| 40 | 太监 | 12 |
| 41 | 达 | 12 |
| 42 | 告诉 | 12 |
| 43 | 设 | 11 |
| 44 | 瓦 | 11 |
| 45 | 来 | 11 |
| 46 | 众 | 11 |
| 47 | 写 | 11 |
| 48 | 去 | 11 |
| 49 | 谕旨 | 11 |
| 50 | 仇敌 | 11 |

## Words found in Esther and nowhere else

印度 以斯帖 籍贯 提列 爵位 王国 十三日 盖印 朝门 废除 保护性 吉日

## Chapters, easiest first

| Chapter | HSK 1-3 | Verses | Characters |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Esther 6 | 58.5% | 14 | 490 |
| Esther 10 | 58.3% | 3 | 102 |
| Esther 5 | 56.9% | 14 | 483 |
| Esther 2 | 56.6% | 23 | 846 |
| Esther 4 | 55.7% | 17 | 556 |
| Esther 1 | 54.9% | 21 | 727 |
| Esther 9 | 54.8% | 32 | 1,011 |
| Esther 7 | 54.2% | 10 | 385 |
| Esther 8 | 50.8% | 16 | 670 |
| Esther 3 | 50.6% | 15 | 588 |

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

## 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