HSK Vocabulary PDF — All Six Word Lists
Every official HSK word list as a free, typeset PDF — 5,001 words in six files, each carrying simplified characters, traditional characters, tone-marked pinyin and English meanings in one table. No sign-up, no email address, no download cap.
HSK 1
≈ CEFR A1Short enough to live on one wall. Most learners print HSK 1 whole, tick words off as they stick, and never open a flashcard app for this level at all.
HSK 2
≈ CEFR A2The list that finishes a beginner. Print it beside HSK 1 rather than instead of it — the exam assumes both, and the two together are still only a few sides of paper.
HSK 3
≈ CEFR B1The level where pinyin disappears from the real exam paper. Print it, then cover the pinyin column with a ruler and read down the characters — the table is laid out so that works.
HSK 4
≈ CEFR B2The one universities and employers usually name. Six hundred words is too many for a wall, so this is the file people keep on a phone and reread on a commute.
HSK 5
≈ CEFR C1The most-requested download on this site. At 1,300 words it is a reference rather than a poster: search it on a phone, or print only the pages covering the topic you are weak on.
HSK 6
≈ CEFR C2Two and a half thousand words, and nobody memorises it front to back. Treat it as a checklist of what you have not met yet rather than as something to work through in order.
Which file is which
Each level assumes every level below it, so the six files stack rather than replace one another. The word count on the left is what is actually in the file; the total on the right is what you are expected to know by the time you sit that exam.
| Level | Words in the file | Total known | ≈ CEFR | What it is for | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HSK 1 | 150 | 150 | A1 | First printout | |
| HSK 2 | 151 | 300 | A2 | Bridge from HSK 1 | |
| HSK 3 | 300 | 600 | B1 | The first serious one | |
| HSK 4 | 600 | 1,200 | B2 | The certificate level | |
| HSK 5 | 1,300 | 2,500 | C1 | Newspaper Chinese | |
| HSK 6 | 2,500 | 5,000 | C2 | The summit |
What is inside each PDF
One table, one numbered row per word, in the official list order rather than alphabetically or by frequency — so a row number is a stable way to say where you got to. Four columns carry the word: the simplified characters, the traditional characters, the pinyin with real tone marks, and the English meaning.
Both scripts sit side by side in every file. That is why there is no separate simplified edition and no separate traditional one: a reader who only wants the one covers the other with a ruler, and a teacher preparing for a mixed class does not have to work out which of two downloads they gave out last term.
The pinyin is written the way the rest of this site writes it — 你好 is nǐ hǎo, never ni3 hao3 and never ni hao. Tone is part of the word, not an accent on top of it, and a word list that quietly drops it teaches the wrong pronunciation from the first reading. If the marks are new to you, the pinyin chart plays every syllable in all four tones.
Three ways people actually use the printed list
A word list is not a course, and reading one front to back is the least effective thing you can do with it. These three are what the layout was designed around.
Cover a column. Lay a ruler over the pinyin and read down the characters aloud, then move it over the characters and read down the pinyin. This is the drill that matters most at HSK 3 and above, because that is the level at which the real exam paper stops printing pinyin for you.
Tick as you go. Print the level, mark the words you already knew, and count what is left. It turns "learn HSK 4" into a number that goes down, which is the single most reliable thing about paper over an app. The vocabulary size test gives you the same estimate faster if you would rather not mark up a printout first.
Cut it up. When you want something to shuffle rather than something to read, the flashcard sheet builder lays any selection of these words out as cut-out cards with the fronts and backs aligned for double-sided printing — or drill the same words on screen with the HSK flashcards.
Where the pinyin and the meanings come from
The files are typeset from the same word data that powers the rest of the site — the level pages, the flashcards and the dictionary all read it — so a PDF cannot disagree with what you see on screen. If a word looks wrong in the file, it is wrong in the online word lists too, and both get fixed together.
Met a word here that you want to see used in a sentence, character by character? Paste it into the Chinese to pinyin translator, which breaks any text into characters, pinyin and English on three lines, or drill the tones you keep missing in the tone trainer. For what the levels mean, how the exam is scored and how HSK 2.0 compares with HSK 3.0, read HSK Explained; when you want to be tested rather than to revise, sit a timed practice paper.
What you may do with the file
Print it, photocopy it, hand it round a classroom, put it on a course page, or build something else out of it — including commercially. The English definitions are adapted from CC-CEDICT and carry a CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, which asks only that the credit travels with the copy and that anything derived from it keeps the same licence. That credit is printed on the first page of every file, so the one thing worth not doing is cropping it off.
The typesetting and layout are ours; the vocabulary is not, and we do not claim it. The full list of the data, fonts and libraries this site uses, with each licence named, is on the licences page.