The Chinese word 意料 (yìliào), meaning "expectation" or "anticipation", is a compound word formed by combining two distinct characters, each contributing to the overall meaning. The first character, 意 (yì), carries the core concepts of "mind", "thought", or "intention", establishing the cognitive aspect. The second character, 料 (liào), originally refers to "material" or "ingredient" but is often used to mean "to estimate", "to foresee", or "to reckon", introducing the action of calculation or prediction. Together, the fusion creates the abstract notion of something that is mentally calculated or foreseen, what one "figures in the mind". It often appears in set phrases like 出乎意料 (chūhū yìliào, "beyond expectation") to illustrate how an event aligns with or diverges from one's prior mental reckoning.