The Chinese word 爱因斯坦 is formed through phonetic transliteration, where each character is chosen to approximate the sounds of the name "Einstein": 爱 (ài) corresponds to "Ei", 因 (yīn) to "in", 斯 (sī) to "s", and 坦 (tǎn) to "tein", collectively creating a sound-based representation of the original name.