HSK Exam Guide HSK 3 vocabulary: how many words, and where the official list is
The HSK Level 3 page on chinesetest.cn says the level covers a comprehensive vocabulary of 600 Chinese words. The official vocabulary list is on the Vocabulary tab of that page, and in the vocabulary part of the HSK syllabus PDF, which starts on printed page 76.
What the 600 figure says
The vocabulary sentence on the Level 3 page gives 600 words. The sentence does not say how that number was counted. It also does not say whether 600 means the words new at this level or a running total.
Our count from the syllabus list
The 2025 syllabus vocabulary list gives every word a serial number. This site counted those numbers for each level. The totals below are our count, not totals printed in the syllabus.
| Item | Our count (level 3) |
|---|---|
| Serial numbers | 501 to 1000 |
| New words at level 3 | 500 |
| Cumulative total up to and including level 3 | 1,000 |
The 500 and 1,000 figures come from our count of the list. They are not the 600 figure on the Level 3 page. This article does not say which figure applies to a given test date.
Where each list is and what an entry shows
The Level 3 page has a Vocabulary tab. The word list is shown on that tab.
The syllabus PDF has a vocabulary part, titled 词汇大纲 (HSK vocabulary syllabus), which starts on printed page 76. The PDF is in Chinese. The English wording on this page is ours and is not official.
Each entry in the syllabus vocabulary list shows four things:
- a serial number
- a level
- pinyin
- a part of speech
This article does not reproduce the words or the list.
The cover of the syllabus gives 2025-11 as the issue date and 2026-07 as the date it came into force. Both dates are in the past as of 11 October 2026.
Sources
- HSK (Level 3) page, Chinese Testing International
- HSK 考试大纲 / Syllabus for the Chinese Proficiency Test (PDF), Center for Language Education and Cooperation
Checked 11 October 2026
This page is an unofficial summary; it is not published by Chinese Testing International, the Center for Language Education and Cooperation or the Ministry of Education, and the official page prevails if they differ.