The Chinese term 恐怖主义 (kǒngbù zhǔyì), meaning "terrorism," is a modern compound word formed through semantic combination: the first component 恐怖 (kǒngbù) means "terror" or "extreme fear," and the second component 主义 (zhǔyì) translates to "doctrine" or "-ism," denoting a systematic ideology or principle. Together, they construct the concept of an ideology or practice whose core principle is the use of terror and violence, typically against civilians, to achieve political, ideological, or religious objectives. This follows a common pattern in Modern Standard Chinese where 主义 is appended to a root word to form nouns indicating systems of thought or practices, analogous to the English suffix "-ism."