The word 晤谈 is formed by combining the character 晤, meaning "to meet" or "to have an interview", with the character 谈, meaning "to talk" or "to discuss". Together, they create a compound word where 晤 sets the context of a face-to-face meeting and 谈 specifies the action of conversation, resulting in the meaning "to have a talk" or "to converse in a meeting".