The word "惨不忍睹" is formed by sequentially combining the characters 惨 (cǎn, meaning "miserable" or "tragic"), 不 (bù, meaning "not"), 忍 (rěn, meaning "endure" or "bear"), and 睹 (dǔ, meaning "see" or "look at"), where 惨 describes a state that causes the result 不忍睹 ("cannot bear to see"), literally conveying a scene so awful that it is unbearable to witness.