The word 啦啦队 is formed by visually and conceptually capturing the energetic, repetitive shouts of a cheering squad through the duplicated character 啦 (lā), which is an onomatopoeic particle for a shouting sound, and then appending the character 队 (duì), meaning "team", to define it as an organized group. Thus, the term literally paints an auditory picture of a "shout-shout-team", directly evoking its meaning as a cheerleading squad.