The word 年夜饭 is formed by combining the characters 年 (meaning "year", specifically referring to the Chinese New Year), 夜 (meaning "night"), and 饭 (meaning "meal" or "dinner"); these characters are concatenated to create a compound noun where 年 modifies 夜 to denote "New Year's Eve", and 年夜 then modifies 饭 to specify the ceremonial family meal eaten on that night.