The word 王子 is formed by directly combining two meaningful characters: 王 (wáng), meaning "king" or "monarch", and 子 (zǐ), which in this context means "son" or "child". The concept is constructed through a straightforward, logical relationship where the second character specifies a direct familial offspring of the entity represented by the first character, thus creating the composite meaning of "the son of a king", or "prince".