The Chinese word "电影院" is formed by combining the characters 电 (diàn), meaning "electric", 影 (yǐng), meaning "image", and 院 (yuàn), meaning "courtyard" or "institution". 电影 together signifies "movie", referring to electric images, and the addition of 院 specifies a place where movies are shown, thus creating the term for "cinema" or "movie theater".