The word 集体 is formed by combining two characters: 集, which means "to gather" or "assemble", and 体, which means "body" or "entity". Conceptually, it creates a metaphorical image of many individual parts or people gathered together to form a single, cohesive body or unit. The formation is directly logical, where the first character describes the action or state (gathering) and the second character defines the resulting form (a body), thus semantically constructing the idea of a "collective" or "group" as an integrated whole.