HSK 5 Vocabulary

HSK 5 Vocabulary List: 2,500 Words

HSK 5 assumes 2,500 cumulative words — 1300 of them new at this level. They cover news, business, academic and literary register — the vocabulary of newspapers, lectures, and film dialogue.

By Haoshan HongNative Mandarin speakerUpdated July 2026

Hear HSK 5 words in a real story

四十年拿不下来的靶点被拿下了。胰腺癌病人多活半年，代价是一个月三万九千八百美元。

A Target Called Undruggable for Forty Years Just Fell. Pancreatic Cancer Patients Gain Six Months, at $39,800 a Month.

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What is on the HSK 5 word list?

HSK 5 word list

How to actually learn HSK 5 vocabulary

HSK 5 episodes to hear these words in

Every episode below is written inside the HSK 5 word band and read at HSK 5 speed. Press play — no account needed for the first few.

HSK 5–6 Chinese listening episodes

One AI Did the Work of Seven Hundred Agents and Scored the Same on Average — a Year Later the Company Hired the Humans Back, Because the Average Was Hiding the Worst Customers

HSK 5-6

平均

píngjūn

One AI Did the Work of Seven Hundred Agents and Scored the Same on Average — a Year Later the Company Hired the Humans Back, Because the Average Was Hiding the Worst Customers

He Had Already Reached a Safe Floor, and He Turned Round and Went Back Up: Twenty-Five Years On, the Man in the Red Bandana Received the Medal of Freedom

HSK 5-6

头巾

tóujīn

He Had Already Reached a Safe Floor, and He Turned Round and Went Back Up: Twenty-Five Years On, the Man in the Red Bandana Received the Medal of Freedom

"If the World Ended Tomorrow, the Global Currency Would Be Pokemon Cards": an Investor Holding Half a Million of Them Means It, and Where He Is Wrong Is More Interesting Than Where He Is Right

HSK 5-6

货币

huòbì

"If the World Ended Tomorrow, the Global Currency Would Be Pokemon Cards": an Investor Holding Half a Million of Them Means It, and Where He Is Wrong Is More Interesting Than Where He Is Right

"How Can You Have a Science Centre With No Science Unit?" The Ontario Science Centre Cut Thirty Jobs and Eliminated Its Entire Science Department

HSK 5-6

科学

kēxué

"How Can You Have a Science Centre With No Science Unit?" The Ontario Science Centre Cut Thirty Jobs and Eliminated Its Entire Science Department

Not One Cent of the $245 Million Was Taken by Force: a 22-Year-Old Spent Two Years on the Phone, and Every Victim Handed It Over Themselves

HSK 5-6

电话

diànhuà

Not One Cent of the $245 Million Was Taken by Force: a 22-Year-Old Spent Two Years on the Phone, and Every Victim Handed It Over Themselves

The First in Two Hundred Years: Wild Horses Have Foaled on Their Own on the Kazakh Steppe — and Their Father Did Not Live to See It

HSK 5-6

野马

yěmǎ

The First in Two Hundred Years: Wild Horses Have Foaled on Their Own on the Kazakh Steppe — and Their Father Did Not Live to See It

A Tick Bit Him and He Could Never Eat Beef Again — Seven Years Later, This Nutritionist Is Raising Four Hundred Ostriches

HSK 5-6

鸵鸟

tuóniǎo

A Tick Bit Him and He Could Never Eat Beef Again — Seven Years Later, This Nutritionist Is Raising Four Hundred Ostriches

A Jury Made Her Their Foreman Because "You Went to Law School" — She Had Only Played a Lawyer in Legally Blonde, and Never Finished College

HSK 5-6

法律

fǎlǜ

A Jury Made Her Their Foreman Because "You Went to Law School" — She Had Only Played a Lawyer in Legally Blonde, and Never Finished College

One Person Spent Twenty-Two Months Rebuilding the Mexico You Could See But Never Reach in Red Dead Redemption 2 — and He Is Giving It Away Free on 16 September

HSK 5-6

地图

dìtú

One Person Spent Twenty-Two Months Rebuilding the Mexico You Could See But Never Reach in Red Dead Redemption 2 — and He Is Giving It Away Free on 16 September

He Was 8-2 With a 1.79 ERA and He Will Not Pitch Again This Year: "He Loves Being a Two-Way Player. But Right Now, It Just Doesn't Make Any Sense."

HSK 5-6

棒球

bàngqiú

He Was 8-2 With a 1.79 ERA and He Will Not Pitch Again This Year: "He Loves Being a Two-Way Player. But Right Now, It Just Doesn't Make Any Sense."

Krakatoa's Child Woke Up at Midnight, Was Heard Seven Hundred Kilometres Away and Stranded 270,000 People — Without Killing a Single One

HSK 5-6

火山

huǒshān

Krakatoa's Child Woke Up at Midnight, Was Heard Seven Hundred Kilometres Away and Stranded 270,000 People — Without Killing a Single One

The Sweetener in Your Sugar-Free Gum Turned Up Alongside Heart Attacks in 17,710 People — and the Researchers Went Out of Their Way to Say That Is Not the Same as Causing Them

HSK 5-6

无糖

wútáng

The Sweetener in Your Sugar-Free Gum Turned Up Alongside Heart Attacks in 17,710 People — and the Researchers Went Out of Their Way to Say That Is Not the Same as Causing Them

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The method in practice

Hear HSK 5 vocabulary in real Mandarin

Every HSK 5 episode is written inside this word band and read at HSK 5 speed, so words stick because you have heard them in a sentence. Full transcript, pinyin toggle, and line-by-line English on every episode. Five free episodes after a one-tap magic-link sign-in — no password, no payment.