# Hosea in Chinese — vocabulary profile

> Hosea uses 949 distinct Chinese characters and 1,167 distinct words across 6,389 characters and 196 verses of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). 53.7% of its word tokens are HSK 1-3, ranking it 59th of 66 books from easiest to hardest by that measure.

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Chapters | 14 |
| Verses | 196 |
| Chinese characters | 6,389 |
| Distinct characters | 949 |
| Word tokens | 4,441 |
| Distinct words | 1,167 |
| Average verse | 33 characters |
| HSK 1-3 word tokens | 53.7% |
| HSK 1-6 word tokens | 68.7% |
| Not in HSK 1-9 | 25.1% |
| Difficulty rank | 59 of 66 (1 = easiest) |
| Reading time | 25 min at 260 chars/min |
| Testament | Old Testament |

## Most frequent words in this book

| # | Word | Occurrences |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 必 | 144 |
| 2 | 耶和华 | 54 |
| 3 | 如 | 47 |
| 4 | 以色列 | 39 |
| 5 | 以法莲 | 39 |
| 6 | 人 | 36 |
| 7 | 说 | 33 |
| 8 | 使 | 31 |
| 9 | 神 | 30 |
| 10 | 因 | 27 |
| 11 | 要 | 26 |
| 12 | 地 | 21 |
| 13 | 民 | 21 |
| 14 | 王 | 16 |
| 15 | 犹大 | 15 |
| 16 | 去 | 15 |
| 17 | 给 | 15 |
| 18 | 亚 | 15 |
| 19 | 爱 | 14 |
| 20 | 埃及 | 14 |
| 21 | 行 | 14 |
| 22 | 有 | 13 |
| 23 | 归 | 13 |
| 24 | 日子 | 12 |
| 25 | 像 | 12 |
| 26 | 牛犊 | 12 |
| 27 | 酒 | 12 |
| 28 | 列 | 11 |
| 29 | 首领 | 11 |
| 30 | 罪孽 | 11 |
| 31 | 行淫 | 10 |
| 32 | 家 | 10 |
| 33 | 罪 | 10 |
| 34 | 先知 | 10 |
| 35 | 用 | 10 |
| 36 | 无 | 10 |
| 37 | 那里 | 9 |
| 38 | 述 | 9 |
| 39 | 就是 | 9 |
| 40 | 来 | 9 |
| 41 | 道 | 9 |
| 42 | 归向 | 9 |
| 43 | 认识 | 9 |
| 44 | 作 | 8 |
| 45 | 阿 | 8 |
| 46 | 耶 | 8 |
| 47 | 以色列人 | 8 |
| 48 | 因此 | 8 |
| 49 | 祭司 | 8 |
| 50 | 一切 | 8 |

## Words found in Hosea and nowhere else

倔强

## Chapters, easiest first

| Chapter | HSK 1-3 | Verses | Characters |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Hosea 2 | 61.1% | 23 | 734 |
| Hosea 13 | 57.5% | 16 | 514 |
| Hosea 14 | 56.7% | 9 | 314 |
| Hosea 6 | 54.7% | 11 | 303 |
| Hosea 7 | 54.5% | 16 | 495 |
| Hosea 9 | 53.6% | 17 | 636 |
| Hosea 4 | 53% | 19 | 574 |
| Hosea 5 | 52.3% | 15 | 474 |
| Hosea 8 | 51.8% | 14 | 406 |
| Hosea 12 | 51.5% | 13 | 386 |
| Hosea 1 | 51% | 11 | 417 |
| Hosea 11 | 50.2% | 12 | 388 |
| Hosea 3 | 50% | 5 | 178 |
| Hosea 10 | 46.9% | 15 | 570 |

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

## 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