The word 中学 is formed by combining two existing characters, each with their own meaning, to create a new, composite concept. The first character, 中 (zhōng), carries the core idea of "middle" or "center". The second character, 学 (xué), fundamentally means "to learn" or "study". By placing them together, the concept literally reads as "middle learning", which conceptually fuses to denote the specific institution or stage of "middle school" or "secondary school", representing the intermediate phase of formal education.