The word 死神 is formed through a direct and powerful conceptual combination of its two characters: 死 meaning "death", and 神 meaning "god", "deity", or "spirit". It does not describe a state or an action, but forges a single, personified entity, literally fusing the abstract concept of "death" with the tangible, archetypal notion of a "divine being" to create the vivid figure of a "death god" or "grim reaper", an anthropomorphic sovereign or spirit that embodies and governs the end of life.