The word 承诺 (chéngnuò), meaning "promise" or "commitment", is formed through the conceptual combination of two constituent characters. The first, 承 (chéng), carries the fundamental idea of receiving, undertaking, or bearing a responsibility, pictorially derived from imagery of supporting hands. It is paired with 诺 (nuò), which itself signifies a spoken agreement or assent, built from the character for speech (言) combined with a phonetic component. Thus, the compound visually and conceptually merges the act of undertaking (承) with a verbal pledge (诺) to create the holistic sense of assuming the burden of one's own spoken word, a promise to be carried out.