The Chinese word **谜语** (míyǔ), meaning "riddle," is a compound formed by combining two meaningful characters: **谜** (mí), which itself means "riddle" or "enigma," and **语** (yǔ), meaning "language" or "speech." This creates a precise, self-explaining compound where the first character defines the category (a puzzle) and the second specifies the medium (verbal expression), thus together denoting "the language of puzzles" or "enigmatic speech," which is the essence of a spoken or literary riddle.