The Chinese word 墨西哥 (Mòxīgē) for "Mexico" is formed entirely through a process of phonetic translation, where three Chinese characters are chosen solely for how closely their pronunciation approximates the sounds of the foreign name "Mexico". Each character represents one syllable: 墨 (mò) for "Me", 西 (xī) for "xi", and 哥 (gē) for "co", resulting in a compound whose primary function is to mimic the original name's sound rather than convey any inherent meaning through its individual characters.