The Chinese word "孟买" (Mèngmǎi) is a phonetic transcription formed through a common process for rendering foreign place names into Chinese, where characters are selected primarily for their sound rather than their meaning. It transcribes "Bombay" (the former colonial name for Mumbai, India), with the character "孟" (mèng) approximating the "Bom-" syllable and "买" (mǎi) approximating the "-bay" syllable, resulting in a close aural imitation while using standard Chinese characters that carry their own unrelated literal meanings (e.g., 孟 can mean "first month of a season" and 买 means "to buy").