HSK 5 vocabulary: how many words, and where the official list is

The official HSK (Level 5) page gives 2,500 Chinese words for the level. The 2025 syllabus also has a level 5 vocabulary list, numbered from 2001 to 3600; by our count from those numbers, that is 1,600 new entries and 3,600 in total up to level 5.

The figure on the level page

The HSK (Level 5) page, published by Chinese Testing International (CTI), says the level covers listening, reading and writing, and "an extensive vocabulary of 2,500 Chinese words". The figure is in the English version of the page. The word list itself is under the Vocabulary tab of the same page.

The level 5 list in the 2025 syllabus

The syllabus is the HSK 考试大纲, published by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (中外语言交流合作中心). Its cover shows an issue date of 2025-11 and an implementation date of 2026-07. The syllabus is in Chinese only. The English names used in this article are our translations.

The syllabus does not print a total for the vocabulary list. The totals below are our count from the serial numbers:

• Level 5 runs from serial number 2001 to 3600.
• That is 1,600 new words for level 5.
• Counted from level 1, the total up to level 5 is 3,600.

Each entry in the vocabulary list gives:

• a serial number
• a level
• pinyin
• a part of speech

This article does not list the words.

Where each list is

• The level page: the Vocabulary tab of the HSK (Level 5) page on chinesetest.cn.
• The syllabus: the vocabulary part of the HSK 考试大纲 PDF, called HSK 词汇大纲 (vocabulary syllabus). That part starts on printed page 76. The level 5 chapter (五级) is inside it.

The 2,500 figure comes from the level page. The serial numbers come from the syllabus. The two come from different documents, and this article does not say which one applies to a given test date.

Sources

• HSK (Level 5) page. Chinese Testing International (CTI), chinesetest.cn
• HSK 考试大纲 / Syllabus for the Chinese Proficiency Test (PDF). Center for Language Education and Cooperation (中外语言交流合作中心)

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.