The word 木偶 is formed by directly combining two characters: 木 (mù), meaning "wood", and 偶 (ǒu), which in this context means "figure" or "effigy". It is a literal, image-based construction where the first component describes the material (wood) and the second identifies the object's form (a human-like figure), together creating the meaning "wooden figure", which is the traditional form of a puppet. This formation visually represents the physical object itself.