The Chinese word "休斯顿" is formed through phonetic transliteration, where the characters are chosen solely for their sound to approximate the English name "Houston": "休" (xiū) mimics "Hous", "斯" (sī) mimics the "s" sound, and "顿" (dùn) mimics "ton", resulting in a sequential representation of the original pronunciation without regard for the individual meanings of the characters.