The Chinese word 昆虫 (kūnchóng), meaning "insect", is a compound term formed through semantic combination, where both constituent characters contribute related meanings to specify a category. The character 昆 (kūn) carries connotations of "many", "together", or historically "insect larvae", while 虫 (chóng) is the generic pictographic character for "bug", "worm", or "creeping creature". By combining them, 昆虫 semantically emphasizes the idea of "the multitude/group of creeping creatures", effectively and precisely defining the class of joint-legged invertebrates known as insects. This formation follows a common pattern in Chinese where two characters with related or reinforcing meanings are joined to create a more specific taxonomic or conceptual term.