The Chinese word **毫克 (háokè)**, meaning "milligram," is a compound formed by combining two morphemes: **毫 (háo)**, a unit prefix denoting one-thousandth (equivalent to "milli-"), and **克 (kè)**, the base unit for gram. This follows the standard Chinese pattern for creating metric units, where a decimal prefix is systematically attached to a base unit, analogous to the international system but using Chinese characters. Thus, the word literally and functionally translates to "one-thousandth of a gram."