The Chinese word 外边 (wàibian) is a compound noun formed by combining the character 外 (wài), meaning "outside" or "exterior", with the character 边 (biān), meaning "side" or "edge". This construction follows a common pattern in Mandarin where a location or direction is specified by pairing a core locative concept (外) with a general suffix-like element (边) that nominalizes it, creating a word that means "the outside" or "the exterior area". It functions as a place word indicating a location that is external or beyond a certain boundary.