The word "意大利" for "Italy" is formed primarily through phonetic transcription, where each character is chosen to approximate the sound of the foreign name. The three characters, "意" (yì), "大" (dà), and "利" (lì), together mimic the sound of "Italy" as heard in English or other European languages, creating a sequence that is recognizable to Chinese speakers as referring to that specific country, with the individual meanings of the characters being largely incidental to this purpose.