How Many Words Are in HSK 4?

HSK 4 adds 972 new words under the HSK 3.0 standard (effective July 2026), the biggest single jump on the HSK ladder so far. Layered on everything from HSK 1 through HSK 3, this is the level where Mandarin stops being about daily errands and starts handling opinions, plans, and abstract ideas: vocabulary for work and careers, society and culture, the environment, health, and how you feel about all of it. If you are hunting for the HSK 4 word list, start here and drill the whole set with flashcards.

The MyHSK4 catalog splits the 972 words into topic sets so you meet them in meaningful batches instead of one endless column. Every entry ships with pinyin, a meaning, and an example sentence, and the full list downloads as a PDF. Because so many Level 4 words are abstract - think economy, environment, influence, and opinion rather than food and family - seeing each one inside a real sentence is what makes it stick.

HSK 4 keeps the scored writing section introduced at HSK 3, only now the prompts run longer, so being able to hand-write each character still pays off on test day. The HSK 4 handwriting hub animates every character stroke by stroke and drills it with Watch, Trace, and Recall, so the right stroke order sticks and words get faster to recognize when reading.

Ready for more context? Our topic-by-topic HSK 4 word list groups all 972 entries by theme, how HSK 4 shifted under the 3.0 standard explains what the reform actually changed, and our HSK 3 vs HSK 4 breakdown shows how far the step up really is.