Single crystals of U 4+ :CsCdBr 3 were grown by the Bridgman–Stockbarger technique. It has been assumed, that U 4+ ions are substituting two Cd 2+ ions and possess the C 3v site symmetry. Thirty seven energy levels, located between 4000 and 25,000 cm −1 and encompassing all but the 1 S 0 multiplet, were assigned from 7 K absorption spectra. The symmetry of the levels were determined on the basis of the observed small splitting of the Γ 3 doublets as well as by a comparison of low temperature absorption spectra of the U 4+ :CsCdBr 3 with that previously reported for U 4+ in Cs 2 UBr 6 and Cs 2 ZrBr 6 single crystals. A crystal-field analysis was performed by fitting eight atomic (in the orthogonal formalism) and 6 crystal-field parameters to the experimental Stark levels with an r.m.s. deviation of 100 cm −1 . The obtained values of the Hamiltonian parameters are discussed and compared with those reported in previous analyses of U 4+ ions. The relatively strong crystal field, resulting in N v =8530 cm −1 proves that in the CsCdBr 3 crystals the U 4+ ions are located at a high symmetry site.