The word "蜈蚣" is formed from two characters, each constructed as a phonetic-semantic compound. The character "蜈" combines the radical 虫, indicating it is creature-related, with the component 吳 for its phonetic value. Similarly, "蚣" uses the radical 虫 for meaning and the component 公 for sound. Together, they represent the disyllabic term for centipede, with the radicals conveying the semantic category and the phonetic components approximating the pronunciation.