The Chinese word for Cambodia, **柬埔寨** (Jiǎnpǔzhài), is a **phonetic transcription** formed by selecting characters whose pronunciations historically approximated the native Khmer name "Kampuchea" (or similar foreign pronunciations like "Cambodge"), where 柬 (jiǎn) and 埔 (pǔ) roughly capture the sounds "Kam" and "pu," while the final character 寨 (zhài, meaning "fortified village" or "stockade") is a common suffix used in traditional Chinese transliterations for foreign place names, often carrying a slight semantic hint of a settled region or country, thereby creating a standardized three-character name typical for nations in Chinese.