The Chinese word **人种** (rénzhǒng), meaning "race" or "ethnicity," is a compound noun formed through semantic combination. It consists of the character **人** (rén), meaning "person" or "people," and **种** (zhǒng), which means "seed," "kind," or "type." Literally, the compound translates to "human kind" or "type of people," where **人** modifies and specifies the category indicated by **种**, focusing the meaning of "kind/type" specifically onto human groupings. This formation follows a common Chinese word-formation pattern where two independent, meaningful characters are combined to create a new, more specific concept that is logically derived from the sum of its parts.