The word 炸酱面 is formed by combining three characters: 炸, meaning 'fried'; 酱, meaning 'sauce'; and 面, meaning 'noodles'. The characters 炸 and 酱 first combine to create 炸酱, meaning 'fried sauce', which then modifies 面 to specify noodles served with this fried sauce, resulting in a term that literally denotes fried sauce noodles.