The Chinese word 山脉 (shānmài, meaning "mountain range") is a compound noun formed through semantic combination, where the character 山 (shān) means "mountain" and 脉 (mài) originally means "veins" or "pulse" but is used metaphorically here to signify something that extends in a connected, linear system. Together, they create the meaning of a continuous, interconnected chain of mountains, visualizing the peaks and ridges as resembling the veins of the earth. This formation exemplifies a common pattern in Chinese where two meaningful characters combine to produce a new, conceptually coherent term.