The word "智囊团" is formed from three characters: "智" meaning wisdom or intelligence, "囊" meaning bag or sack, and "团" meaning group or team. "智囊" combines to metaphorically denote a repository of wisdom, often referring to an advisor. Adding "团" expands this to a collective, resulting in a term that literally means "wisdom-bag group" and functionally refers to a think tank or advisory committee.