# Matthew in Chinese — vocabulary profile

> Matthew uses 1,415 distinct Chinese characters and 2,475 distinct words across 27,983 characters and 1,069 verses of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). 68.1% of its word tokens are HSK 1-3, ranking it 2nd of 66 books from easiest to hardest by that measure.

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Chapters | 28 |
| Verses | 1,069 |
| Chinese characters | 27,983 |
| Distinct characters | 1,415 |
| Word tokens | 19,768 |
| Distinct words | 2,475 |
| Average verse | 26 characters |
| HSK 1-3 word tokens | 68.1% |
| HSK 1-6 word tokens | 75.8% |
| Not in HSK 1-9 | 18.8% |
| Difficulty rank | 2 of 66 (1 = easiest) |
| Reading time | 108 min at 260 chars/min |
| Testament | New Testament |

## Most frequent words in this book

| # | Word | Occurrences |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 说 | 470 |
| 2 | 人 | 307 |
| 3 | 耶稣 | 287 |
| 4 | 要 | 210 |
| 5 | 来 | 187 |
| 6 | 有 | 178 |
| 7 | 去 | 154 |
| 8 | 给 | 103 |
| 9 | 一 | 87 |
| 10 | 门徒 | 83 |
| 11 | 告诉 | 81 |
| 12 | 叫 | 74 |
| 13 | 那里 | 70 |
| 14 | 就是 | 61 |
| 15 | 主 | 59 |
| 16 | 看见 | 55 |
| 17 | 神 | 54 |
| 18 | 必 | 53 |
| 19 | 若 | 53 |
| 20 | 事 | 52 |
| 21 | 凡 | 52 |
| 22 | 拿 | 50 |
| 23 | 生 | 46 |
| 24 | 众人 | 46 |
| 25 | 个 | 44 |
| 26 | 地 | 42 |
| 27 | 听见 | 42 |
| 28 | 不要 | 41 |
| 29 | 先知 | 41 |
| 30 | 进 | 41 |
| 31 | 当 | 41 |
| 32 | 大 | 41 |
| 33 | 回答 | 40 |
| 34 | 子 | 38 |
| 35 | 看 | 38 |
| 36 | 见 | 38 |
| 37 | 出来 | 37 |
| 38 | 天国 | 37 |
| 39 | 父 | 36 |
| 40 | 带 | 35 |
| 41 | 两 | 34 |
| 42 | 许多 | 34 |
| 43 | 用 | 34 |
| 44 | 好 | 34 |
| 45 | 还 | 33 |
| 46 | 天上 | 33 |
| 47 | 做 | 33 |
| 48 | 起来 | 32 |
| 49 | 谁 | 32 |
| 50 | 仆人 | 32 |

## Words found in Matthew and nowhere else

亚比玉 亚金 以律 马但 稗 薅 珠子 癫痫 阉 酉 师尊 淋

## Chapters, easiest first

| Chapter | HSK 1-3 | Verses | Characters |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Matthew 25 | 78.3% | 46 | 1,187 |
| Matthew 20 | 75.3% | 34 | 842 |
| Matthew 18 | 71% | 34 | 972 |
| Matthew 10 | 70.8% | 42 | 1,125 |
| Matthew 11 | 69.6% | 30 | 816 |
| Matthew 28 | 69.6% | 20 | 516 |
| Matthew 13 | 69.4% | 58 | 1,470 |
| Matthew 21 | 69.3% | 46 | 1,356 |
| Matthew 24 | 69% | 51 | 1,195 |
| Matthew 14 | 69% | 36 | 776 |
| Matthew 26 | 68.8% | 75 | 1,948 |
| Matthew 6 | 68.6% | 34 | 1,011 |
| Matthew 9 | 68.3% | 38 | 1,019 |
| Matthew 3 | 68.1% | 17 | 463 |
| Matthew 8 | 67.8% | 34 | 877 |
| Matthew 23 | 67.1% | 38 | 1,161 |
| Matthew 12 | 67.1% | 50 | 1,366 |
| Matthew 4 | 67.1% | 25 | 665 |
| Matthew 7 | 66.9% | 29 | 732 |
| Matthew 17 | 66.4% | 27 | 754 |
| Matthew 5 | 66.1% | 48 | 1,226 |
| Matthew 22 | 66.1% | 46 | 1,005 |
| Matthew 16 | 66% | 28 | 806 |
| Matthew 15 | 65.7% | 39 | 896 |
| Matthew 19 | 65.5% | 30 | 797 |
| Matthew 27 | 65% | 66 | 1,651 |
| Matthew 2 | 64.3% | 23 | 713 |
| Matthew 1 | 49.2% | 25 | 638 |

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

## 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