The Chinese word 一氧化碳 (yī yǎng huà tàn) for "carbon monoxide" is formed through a logical, descriptive compounding common in scientific terminology: the character 一 (yī, "one") specifies the quantity, 氧 (yǎng, "oxygen") denotes the element oxygen, 化 (huà, "change/compound") acts as a suffix indicating a chemical compound, and 碳 (tàn, "carbon") specifies the core element; thus, the term literally and systematically translates to "carbon-oxygen-one-compound," directly reflecting the molecule's composition of one atom each of carbon and oxygen.