The word 病例 is formed by combining two meaningful characters: 病 (bìng), which means "illness" or "disease", and 例 (lì), which means "example" or "instance". When placed together, they create a conceptual compound where the second character specifies and categorizes the first; thus, an "illness-example" logically denotes a specific recorded instance or case of a disease, forming the meaning "case history" or simply "case" (as in a medical case).