urea

IPA/jʊˈriːə/
KK[jɚˈiə]IPA/jʊˈriːə/

urea — noun

1. a white chemical substance that contains nitrogen. Living bodies create it as wa

1.nounB2
Definition

a white chemical substance that contains nitrogen. Living bodies create it as waste and expel it in urine. Factories can produce it from ammonia. It is put into plant foods and livestock feeds, and used when manufacturing plastics.

Example

The kidneys filter urea from blood and pass it out of the body in urine.

uncountable noun; used with verb 'filter'

Farmers spread granular urea on rice fields before planting to increase the harvest.

collocation: granular urea / spread urea

Common collocations
  • remove urea
  • excrete urea
  • produce urea
  • synthetic urea
  • granular urea
  • liquid urea
  • urea fertilizer
  • urea cream
Synonyms
  • carbamide

    the chemical-science name for urea, used mainly in pharmaceutical and laboratory settings

Grammar Patterns

uncountable noun — no plural form; used with singular verbs

Usage Note

Because urea is a substance, it is uncountable and has no plural form. It appears most often in science, farming, and manufacturing contexts rather than everyday conversation.

Common Mistakes

The lab tested several ureas.
The lab tested several samples of urea.
Urea is uncountable and cannot be pluralised.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Urea, ammonia, and creatinine are all nitrogen-containing waste compounds in the body, but they differ in origin and use. Urea is the main solid waste in human urine and is widely made into fertilizer. Ammonia is a smaller, more toxic molecule; the liver converts ammonia into urea to lower its toxicity. Creatinine is a waste product from muscle activity and is measured in blood tests to check kidney function, but it has no industrial use like urea does.

urea ↗ammonia ↗creatinine

Common collocations

Nouns

  • urea fertilizer
  • urea cream
  • urea level
  • urea cycle

Phrases

  • blood urea nitrogen
  • urea breath test

Etymology

GreekFrenchEnglish

The name comes from French 'urée', which was coined in the late 1700s from Greek 'ouron' (οὖρον), meaning 'urine'. Scientists chose the name because urea was first discovered in and isolated from human urine.

First known use

1806

1806, in the meaning defined above