# Romans in Chinese — vocabulary profile

> Romans uses 971 distinct Chinese characters and 1,504 distinct words across 12,252 characters and 433 verses of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). 59.1% of its word tokens are HSK 1-3, ranking it 32nd of 66 books from easiest to hardest by that measure.

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Chapters | 16 |
| Verses | 433 |
| Chinese characters | 12,252 |
| Distinct characters | 971 |
| Word tokens | 8,665 |
| Distinct words | 1,504 |
| Average verse | 28 characters |
| HSK 1-3 word tokens | 59.1% |
| HSK 1-6 word tokens | 72.9% |
| Not in HSK 1-9 | 20.5% |
| Difficulty rank | 32 of 66 (1 = easiest) |
| Reading time | 47 min at 260 chars/min |
| Testament | New Testament |

## Most frequent words in this book

| # | Word | Occurrences |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 神 | 173 |
| 2 | 人 | 148 |
| 3 | 要 | 77 |
| 4 | 因 | 70 |
| 5 | 说 | 67 |
| 6 | 律法 | 67 |
| 7 | 死 | 63 |
| 8 | 义 | 58 |
| 9 | 罪 | 56 |
| 10 | 叫 | 55 |
| 11 | 作 | 53 |
| 12 | 有 | 48 |
| 13 | 基督 | 48 |
| 14 | 信 | 47 |
| 15 | 主 | 45 |
| 16 | 若 | 37 |
| 17 | 得 | 36 |
| 18 | 给 | 35 |
| 19 | 受 | 34 |
| 20 | 就是 | 33 |
| 21 | 事 | 28 |
| 22 | 必 | 27 |
| 23 | 当 | 27 |
| 24 | 割礼 | 27 |
| 25 | 谁 | 26 |
| 26 | 不可 | 26 |
| 27 | 行 | 24 |
| 28 | 使 | 23 |
| 29 | 肉体 | 21 |
| 30 | 能 | 21 |
| 31 | 去 | 21 |
| 32 | 来 | 21 |
| 33 | 耶稣 | 21 |
| 34 | 圣灵 | 21 |
| 35 | 问 | 21 |
| 36 | 安 | 21 |
| 37 | 经 | 20 |
| 38 | 乃是 | 20 |
| 39 | 耶稣基督 | 19 |
| 40 | 借着 | 19 |
| 41 | 称 | 19 |
| 42 | 做 | 19 |
| 43 | 众人 | 18 |
| 44 | 外邦人 | 18 |
| 45 | 如 | 18 |
| 46 | 荣耀 | 18 |
| 47 | 心里 | 18 |
| 48 | 爱 | 17 |
| 49 | 可 | 16 |
| 50 | 一 | 16 |

## Words found in Romans and nowhere else

奉召 余数 踪迹 西班牙 模范 仪 老练 人体

## Chapters, easiest first

| Chapter | HSK 1-3 | Verses | Characters |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Romans 10 | 66.6% | 21 | 538 |
| Romans 7 | 63.5% | 25 | 777 |
| Romans 14 | 62.9% | 23 | 630 |
| Romans 4 | 62.5% | 25 | 729 |
| Romans 9 | 60.8% | 33 | 965 |
| Romans 8 | 58.9% | 39 | 1,126 |
| Romans 11 | 58.9% | 36 | 1,037 |
| Romans 3 | 58.4% | 31 | 761 |
| Romans 16 | 58% | 27 | 752 |
| Romans 15 | 57.9% | 33 | 927 |
| Romans 1 | 57.4% | 32 | 959 |
| Romans 2 | 57.1% | 29 | 802 |
| Romans 5 | 56.2% | 21 | 639 |
| Romans 6 | 55.6% | 23 | 666 |
| Romans 12 | 55.5% | 21 | 515 |
| Romans 13 | 54.9% | 14 | 429 |

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

## 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.


---

- 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