The Chinese word 定律 (dìnglǜ), meaning "law" (as in scientific or natural law), is a compound formed by combining two characters: 定, meaning "fixed", "stable", or "established", and 律, meaning "rule", "law", or "statute". Together, they create a conceptual compound where 定 modifies 律 to specify a type of rule that is fixed, immutable, or universally established, thus perfectly capturing the essence of a fundamental and unchanging principle, such as Newton's laws of motion or the law of conservation of energy.