The Chinese word 延期 (yánqī), meaning "to postpone" or "to extend a deadline", is a compound word formed by combining two meaningful characters: 延 (yán), which means "to prolong", "to extend", or "to delay", and 期 (qī), which means "a period of time", "a scheduled date", or "a deadline". The formation follows a standard verb-object or purpose-result logical structure common in Chinese, where the first character 延 (extend) acts upon the second character 期 (time period), thereby directly and transparently conveying the concept of "extending the time period" or "delaying the scheduled date".