Standard Lemma guide

urea

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /jʊˈɹiːə/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈjʊəɹɪə/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Canada, General-American: /jʊˈɹiə/
  • South-Asia: /ˈjurɪjɑ/
  • South-Asia: /jʊˈrɪjɑ/
  • rhymes with -iːə
  • CMU ARPABET: Y ER0 IY1 AH0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A water-soluble organic compound, CO(NH2)2, formed by the metabolism of proteins and excreted in the urine.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Topics: biochemistry, biology, chemistry, microbiology, natural-sciences, organic-chemistry, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Any N-substituted derivative of urea, with the general formula (R1R2N)CO(NR3R4).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable

Topics: chemistry, natural-sciences, organic-chemistry, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

the chief solid component of mammalian urine; synthesized from ammonia and carbon dioxide and used as fertilizer and in animal feed and in plastics

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: carbamide

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: organic compound

History

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”).

Across languages

Translations

43 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: карбамид (karbamid) — organic compound
  • Catalan: urea — organic compound
  • Chinese Cantonese: 尿素 (niu6 sou3) — organic compound
  • Chinese Mandarin: 尿素 (niàosù) — organic compound
  • Czech: urea — organic compound
  • Czech: močovina — organic compound
  • Czech: karbamid — organic compound
  • Danish: urea — organic compound
  • Danish: urinstof — organic compound
  • Dutch: ureum — organic compound
  • Esperanto: ureo — organic compound
  • Finnish: virtsa-aine — organic compound
  • Finnish: urea — organic compound
  • French: urée — organic compound
  • German: Harnstoff — organic compound
  • Greek: ουρία (ouría) — organic compound
  • Hebrew: שתנן (shitnán) — organic compound
  • Irish: úiré — organic compound
  • Italian: urea — organic compound
  • Japanese: 尿素 (nyōso) — organic compound
  • Kazakh: несепнәр (nesepnär) — organic compound
  • Korean: 요소 (yoso) — organic compound
  • Māori: matū mimi — organic compound
  • Norwegian Bokmål: urea — organic compound
  • Norwegian Bokmål: urinstoff — organic compound
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: urea — organic compound
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: urinstoff — organic compound
  • Persian: اوره (ure) — organic compound
  • Polish: mocznik — organic compound
  • Portuguese: ureia — organic compound
  • Russian: мочеви́на (močevína) — organic compound
  • Serbo-Croatian: mòkraćevina — organic compound
  • Serbo-Croatian: urea — organic compound
  • Serbo-Croatian: urèa — organic compound
  • Slovene: sečnína — organic compound
  • Spanish: urea — organic compound
  • Swedish: urinämne — organic compound
  • Swedish: urea — organic compound
  • Swedish: karbamid — organic compound
  • Turkish: üre — organic compound
  • Chinese Cantonese: 脲 (niu6) — derivative
  • Chinese Mandarin: 脲 (niào) — derivative
  • Hungarian: karbamid — derivative