# Ruth in Chinese — vocabulary profile

> Ruth uses 484 distinct Chinese characters and 554 distinct words across 2,956 characters and 85 verses of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). 61.7% of its word tokens are HSK 1-3, ranking it 19th of 66 books from easiest to hardest by that measure.

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Chapters | 4 |
| Verses | 85 |
| Chinese characters | 2,956 |
| Distinct characters | 484 |
| Word tokens | 2,098 |
| Distinct words | 554 |
| Average verse | 35 characters |
| HSK 1-3 word tokens | 61.7% |
| HSK 1-6 word tokens | 72.2% |
| Not in HSK 1-9 | 23.1% |
| Difficulty rank | 19 of 66 (1 = easiest) |
| Reading time | 11 min at 260 chars/min |
| Testament | Old Testament |

## Most frequent words in this book

| # | Word | Occurrences |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 说 | 53 |
| 2 | 人 | 29 |
| 3 | 拿俄米 | 28 |
| 4 | 路得 | 27 |
| 5 | 波阿斯 | 27 |
| 6 | 耶和华 | 18 |
| 7 | 使 | 18 |
| 8 | 地 | 16 |
| 9 | 去 | 15 |
| 10 | 愿 | 15 |
| 11 | 摩 | 14 |
| 12 | 押 | 14 |
| 13 | 那里 | 13 |
| 14 | 女子 | 13 |
| 15 | 婆婆 | 13 |
| 16 | 拾取 | 13 |
| 17 | 女儿 | 11 |
| 18 | 来 | 11 |
| 19 | 有 | 10 |
| 20 | 要 | 10 |
| 21 | 麦穗 | 10 |
| 22 | 生 | 10 |
| 23 | 个儿 | 9 |
| 24 | 妇 | 9 |
| 25 | 赎 | 9 |
| 26 | 两 | 8 |
| 27 | 得 | 8 |
| 28 | 伯利恒 | 7 |
| 29 | 利 | 7 |
| 30 | 名叫 | 7 |
| 31 | 丈夫 | 7 |
| 32 | 必 | 7 |
| 33 | 不要 | 7 |
| 34 | 收割 | 7 |
| 35 | 仆人 | 7 |
| 36 | 这里 | 7 |
| 37 | 近 | 7 |
| 38 | 亲属 | 7 |
| 39 | 子 | 6 |
| 40 | 叫 | 6 |
| 41 | 米 | 6 |
| 42 | 妻 | 6 |
| 43 | 到了 | 6 |
| 44 | 于是 | 6 |
| 45 | 行 | 6 |
| 46 | 恩 | 6 |
| 47 | 们 | 6 |
| 48 | 大麦 | 6 |
| 49 | 今日 | 6 |
| 50 | 至 | 6 |

## Words found in Ruth and nowhere else

拿俄米 嫂子 对路 到场

## Chapters, easiest first

| Chapter | HSK 1-3 | Verses | Characters |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Ruth 3 | 65.3% | 18 | 597 |
| Ruth 2 | 61% | 23 | 860 |
| Ruth 4 | 61% | 22 | 727 |
| Ruth 1 | 60.2% | 22 | 772 |

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

## 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