urea

noun

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”).

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

   “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.”

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