The Chinese word 湄潭 is formed by combining two phono-semantic characters: 湄 uses the water radical 氵 with 眉 as phonetic, meaning "riverbank", and 潭 uses the water radical 氵 with 覃 as phonetic, meaning "deep pool". Together, they create a descriptive compound referring to a geographical feature, which is used as a place name for a location characterized by these water elements.