urea
/jʊˈɹiə/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.84 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
3
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A water-soluble organic compound, CO(NH₂)₂, formed by the metabolism of proteins and excreted in the urine.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Five of them — Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — supply more than a third of the world’s urea, an important nitrogen fertilizer, and nearly a quarter of another one, ammonia. […] Over the past week, the price of urea sold in Egypt, a market that economists track closely, climbed more than 35 percent."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁wers-der. Ancient Greek οὐρέω (ouréō) Ancient Greek οὖρον (oûron)der. French uréeder. New Latinder. English urea From New Latin, from French urée, from Ancient Greek οὖρον (oûron, “urine”).
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: -, urée, οὖρον
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /jʊˈɹiə/
- British English: /jʊˈɹiːə/