The Chinese word 海藻 (hǎizǎo), meaning "seaweed," is a straightforward compound noun formed by combining two meaningful characters: 海 (hǎi), which means "sea" or "ocean," and 藻 (zǎo), which means "algae" or "aquatic plant." This formation follows the common Chinese morphological pattern of modifier-head structure, where the first character 海 specifies the environment or origin ("marine"), and the second character 藻 denotes the core entity ("algae"), together creating a precise term for algae that grows in the sea.