The word "国际" (guójì) is formed through the direct and logical combination of two meaningful characters: "国" meaning "country" or "nation", and "际" meaning "boundary", "between", or "inter-". Conceptually, it fuses the idea of "nation" with the idea of "the space between" or "relations across", thereby creating the composite meaning of "international", which refers to things that exist between or involve multiple nations. This formation is a clear example of how Chinese compounds often build new, abstract concepts from concrete, pictorial character components.