# Luke in Chinese — vocabulary profile

> Luke uses 1,493 distinct Chinese characters and 2,749 distinct words across 30,495 characters and 1,146 verses of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). 67.7% of its word tokens are HSK 1-3, ranking it 6th of 66 books from easiest to hardest by that measure.

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Chapters | 24 |
| Verses | 1,146 |
| Chinese characters | 30,495 |
| Distinct characters | 1,493 |
| Word tokens | 21,596 |
| Distinct words | 2,749 |
| Average verse | 27 characters |
| HSK 1-3 word tokens | 67.7% |
| HSK 1-6 word tokens | 75.9% |
| Not in HSK 1-9 | 18.8% |
| Difficulty rank | 6 of 66 (1 = easiest) |
| Reading time | 117 min at 260 chars/min |
| Testament | New Testament |

## Most frequent words in this book

| # | Word | Occurrences |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 说 | 517 |
| 2 | 耶稣 | 350 |
| 3 | 人 | 307 |
| 4 | 有 | 238 |
| 5 | 要 | 218 |
| 6 | 来 | 166 |
| 7 | 去 | 153 |
| 8 | 神 | 126 |
| 9 | 儿子 | 107 |
| 10 | 事 | 103 |
| 11 | 给 | 87 |
| 12 | 主 | 87 |
| 13 | 一 | 87 |
| 14 | 看见 | 71 |
| 15 | 叫 | 69 |
| 16 | 告诉 | 69 |
| 17 | 必 | 57 |
| 18 | 那里 | 57 |
| 19 | 众人 | 57 |
| 20 | 个 | 54 |
| 21 | 不要 | 53 |
| 22 | 用 | 53 |
| 23 | 就是 | 52 |
| 24 | 拿 | 51 |
| 25 | 一切 | 46 |
| 26 | 门徒 | 46 |
| 27 | 地 | 45 |
| 28 | 国 | 44 |
| 29 | 城 | 43 |
| 30 | 问 | 43 |
| 31 | 两 | 42 |
| 32 | 凡 | 41 |
| 33 | 若 | 40 |
| 34 | 看 | 40 |
| 35 | 仆人 | 39 |
| 36 | 鬼 | 39 |
| 37 | 起来 | 39 |
| 38 | 谁 | 39 |
| 39 | 得 | 38 |
| 40 | 因 | 38 |
| 41 | 当 | 37 |
| 42 | 约翰 | 37 |
| 43 | 大 | 37 |
| 44 | 话 | 36 |
| 45 | 还 | 36 |
| 46 | 行 | 35 |
| 47 | 不能 | 35 |
| 48 | 先知 | 35 |
| 49 | 面前 | 34 |
| 50 | 听见 | 33 |

## Words found in Luke and nowhere else

莎 强健 逸 捶 讹诈 锭 做生意 马槽 熟识 希斯仑 湖边 酬谢

## Chapters, easiest first

| Chapter | HSK 1-3 | Verses | Characters |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Luke 10 | 72.2% | 42 | 1,211 |
| Luke 24 | 71.1% | 53 | 1,288 |
| Luke 17 | 70.8% | 36 | 854 |
| Luke 7 | 70.5% | 50 | 1,452 |
| Luke 15 | 70.5% | 32 | 841 |
| Luke 22 | 69.9% | 71 | 1,685 |
| Luke 19 | 69.8% | 48 | 1,151 |
| Luke 8 | 69.4% | 56 | 1,633 |
| Luke 9 | 69.2% | 62 | 1,754 |
| Luke 12 | 69% | 59 | 1,620 |
| Luke 21 | 68.5% | 37 | 948 |
| Luke 4 | 68.3% | 44 | 1,160 |
| Luke 14 | 68.3% | 35 | 878 |
| Luke 13 | 67.9% | 35 | 1,009 |
| Luke 20 | 67.2% | 47 | 1,114 |
| Luke 6 | 66.9% | 49 | 1,474 |
| Luke 11 | 66.4% | 54 | 1,605 |
| Luke 23 | 66.2% | 55 | 1,362 |
| Luke 2 | 65.3% | 51 | 1,287 |
| Luke 5 | 65.2% | 39 | 1,079 |
| Luke 1 | 64.9% | 79 | 1,803 |
| Luke 18 | 64.8% | 43 | 1,010 |
| Luke 16 | 62.9% | 31 | 939 |
| Luke 3 | 60.1% | 38 | 1,338 |

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

## 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