The word "轨道" is formed by combining two meaningful characters: "轨" (guǐ), which originally depicted the tracks or grooves left by a wheeled vehicle, representing a fixed track or rut, and "道" (dào), meaning a path, road, or way. Together, they conceptually merge to create the composite idea of a "guiding path" or a prescribed course. This formation visually and notionally combines the specificity of a physical track (轨) with the broader concept of a pathway (道), resulting in a term that denotes a fixed, often engineered route for travel or movement, such as a railway track or, by extension, an orbital path in space.