New HSK vocabulary lookup: a 150-word sample of the 2025 exam syllabus, 25 per level, with each word's level in the old HSK and in the 2021 standard.
HSK Vocabulary Lookup (HSK 词汇表)
How to use
Browse a level
Click HSK 1–6 to see 25 sample words the 2025 exam syllabus introduces at that level. They are spread evenly across the level by a fixed rule, not the most common words.
Look up a word
Type Chinese, pinyin or English. Tone marks are optional: nihao, nǐhǎo and ni3hao3 all work.
Compare three levels
Each word shows its level in the new exam, in the old six-level HSK and in the 2021 national standard, which often differ.
Get the full list
The sample has 150 words. All 11,000 are in the syllabus PDF.
The new HSK has two official word lists
The new HSK is built on nine levels in three bands, following China's national standard for Chinese as a second language, GF 0025-2021, in force from 1 July 2021 (Ministry of Education release). That standard lists 11,092 words, a total carried over from a 2010 Ministry standard (bulletin: 2,245 + 3,211 + 4,175, plus an appendix of 1,461).
The exam itself follows a separate document: the HSK examination syllabus issued by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation in November 2025, in force from July 2026. We counted its entries: 11,000 words, reaching 300 by level 1, 500 by level 2, 1,000 by level 3, 2,000 by level 4, 3,600 by level 5 and 5,400 by level 6, with levels 7–9 sharing one list that brings the total to 11,000. The two lists often put the same word at different levels, so this tool shows both.
When the new exam starts
A notice republished by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and credited to HKGJ-CTI says the new HSK launches worldwide on 13 December 2026 (source). Malaysia's HSK test centre says on its registration page that the old HSK ends from December 2026, and it had already listed a new-format sitting on 20 September 2026. We found no official statement for Singapore; ask the test centre.
School Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia
Singapore O-Level Chinese and Malaysian SPM Chinese are school curricula, separate from HSK, and no official table maps one onto the other.
This tool holds 150 sample words. Old six-level HSK levels come from a community transcription of the 2012 lists (the official pages are offline), and 2021-standard levels from a transcription of that standard's PDF; new-exam levels are taken from the syllabus itself.
Where the HSK word counts come from
The new HSK has two official nine-level word lists: the 2021 national standard, GF 0025-2021, and the exam syllabus issued in November 2025. The exam follows the syllabus.
The often-quoted 11,092 words is the 2021 standard's total, and it comes from a 2010 Ministry of Education standard: 2,245 + 3,211 + 4,175, plus an appendix of 1,461.
By our count of the exam syllabus, the cumulative word totals are 300 at level 1, 500 at 2, 1,000 at 3, 2,000 at 4, 3,600 at 5, 5,400 at 6 and 11,000 at levels 7–9.
The old six-level HSK asked for 150, 300, 600, 1,200, 2,500 and "over 5,000" words (Hanban's archived English site).
Of the old HSK's 4,995 words, 50.7% stay at their old level in the exam syllabus, against 16.4% in the 2021 standard. That is our count, on a community transcription of the old lists.
A notice republished by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission says the new HSK launches worldwide on 13 December 2026.
Malaysia's test centre says the old HSK ends from December 2026, and it scheduled a new-format sitting on 20 September 2026.
The new HSK tests listening, speaking, reading and writing, and adds translation at the advanced levels (chinesetest.cn).
Frequently Asked Questions
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No. It holds 150 sample words, 25 per level, spread evenly by a fixed rule across the words the exam syllabus introduces at each level; they are not the most common words. The syllabus states no licence for reuse, so the full list is in the syllabus PDF.
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Both, from different documents. 11,092 is the 2021 national standard's total, carried over from a 2010 standard; 11,000 is the number of words in the 2025 exam syllabus, which is the list the exam uses.
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A notice republished by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission says 13 December 2026. Malaysia's test centre says the old HSK ends from December 2026. We found no official statement for Singapore, so check with the test centre.
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By our count, 50.7% of the old HSK's 4,995 words stay at their old level in the exam syllabus. That measures how much the word lists overlap, not whether an old certificate is still accepted; ask the institution that is admitting or hiring you.
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The syllabus lists words and pinyin but gives no meanings. The short English meanings were written for this tool.
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New-exam levels come from the exam syllabus; old six-level HSK levels from a community transcription of the 2012 lists, whose official pages are offline; 2021-standard levels from a transcription of that standard's PDF.
Method & sources
How it computes
Reference sample: 150 words, 25 for each of levels 1-6, drawn by a fixed rule from the word list of the 2025 HSK exam syllabus; searched by Chinese, pinyin or English through HskSearchKernel. All 150 rows (serial number, level, word, pinyin) checked against the syllabus PDF on 2026-10-17.
What this tool implements
- All 150 sample rows match CTI's 2025 HSK syllabus (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, issued November 2025, in force July 2026): serial number, level, word and pinyin. The page's cumulative word totals (300, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 3,600, 5,400, 11,000) confirmed from the same document.
- Not re-read in this pass and not listed as sources here: GF 0025-2021, the 2012 HSK lists (community transcriptions) and the Shanghai notice on the 13 December 2026 launch, which the page cites as before.
Sources
- Center for Language Education and Cooperation (中外语言交流合作中心). 中文水平考试 HSK 考试大纲 / Syllabus for the Chinese Proficiency Test, issued November 2025, in force July 2026; word list serials 1-11000. https://hsk.cn-bj.ufileos.com/3.0/%E6%96%B0%E7%89%88HSK%E8%80%83%…
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