Urinometry

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The practice centers on measuring various traits of urine for health evaluations
2. The technique of assessing urine characteristics to aid in diagnosing health conditions
3. A medical method involving the evaluation of urine features to monitor bodily functions

Etymology: Urinometry is a compound built from three parts: "urine," from Latin "urina," the "-o-" linking vowel that compounds commonly take, and "-metry," from Greek "metron," meaning measure. Put together, the word literally means the measuring of urine. The pattern is the same one found in words like geometry (earth-measuring) or thermometry (heat-measuring), and the "-metry" ending is what marks the word as a practice of measurement rather than the instrument itself. The most useful thing to know about the word is its shape: each element is a plain, transparent piece, so the meaning can be read straight off the parts. The word belongs to the technical vocabulary of medicine, where testing a sample's properties was once a central diagnostic tool.

Synonyms: urinalysis, urine examination