The Chinese word 物种 (wùzhǒng), meaning "species", is a compound noun formed through semantic combination. It consists of the character 物 (wù), which means "thing", "entity", or "matter", and 种 (zhǒng), which means "kind", "type", or "seed". When combined, the characters create a new, specific meaning: "物" broadly denotes living entities or things, and "种" specifies their classification or category. Thus, 物种 literally translates to "kind of entity" or "type of organism", precisely capturing the biological concept of a distinct group of living beings capable of interbreeding. This formation is a classic example of how modern Chinese creates scientific terminology by logically combining existing meaningful morphemes.