The word **间断** is formed as a compound of two meaningful characters: **间** (jiān), which means "interval" or "space between," and **断** (duàn), which means "to cut off" or "to sever." Combined, they create a verb/adjective that literally conveys the idea of "cutting at the intervals" or "having a break in between," thus meaning "to be intermittent," "to be discontinuous," or "to have a gap." This formation follows a typical Chinese morphological pattern where two synonyms or conceptually related characters are joined to express a more precise or abstract meaning—in this case, describing an action or state that is not continuous but is repeatedly halted and resumed.