The Chinese word 消耗 (xiāohào), meaning "to consume" or "to use up", is a compound formed by combining two characters with closely related meanings. The first character, 消 (xiāo), carries the sense of "to disappear" or "to diminish", while the second, 耗 (hào), means "to consume" or "to waste". When paired, they reinforce and specify each other, creating a verb that describes the process of gradual depletion or expenditure, most commonly applied to abstract resources like energy, time, or funds. This formation follows a common pattern in Chinese where synonymous or semantically linked characters are joined to express a more precise or nuanced concept.