How to Pronounce Urinary Retention

Say it like this: YOOR-ih-nair-ee reh-TEN-shun. The stress falls on the first syllable of the first word (YOOR) and on the second syllable of the second word (TEN). It rhymes roughly with 'your in there' and 'attention,' but said as two separate medical terms.

Urinary (YOOR-ih-nair-ee) means 'related to urine or the system that makes and releases urine.' It comes from the Latin word 'urina,' which means urine. You'll see this root in other words like 'urologist' (a doctor who treats urinary problems) and 'urinalysis' (a test of urine).

Retention means 'the act of holding something in or keeping it from being released.' It comes from the Latin word 'retinere,' which means 'to hold back.' In medicine, retention always refers to something the body is holding onto when it normally wouldn't.

Break it into these parts: u-ri-nar-y (four syllables) and re-ten-tion (three syllables). The full term has seven syllables total, with the stress on the first syllable of 'urinary' and the second syllable of 'retention.'

Many people stress the wrong syllable and say yoo-RIN-ar-ee instead of YOOR-ih-nair-ee, or they say reh-ten-SHUN instead of reh-TEN-shun. Remember: the stress goes on YOOR and then on TEN, not on the middle or end of each word.

You might hear it said like this: 'The doctor explained to the patient that he was experiencing urinary retention and referred him to a specialist.' It's a straightforward medical term used to name a specific condition affecting the bladder.

Several related words use the same root: urinalysis (a urine test), urologist (a bladder and urine specialist), urinary tract (the system that makes and carries urine), and uremia (a buildup of urine waste in the blood). All of them come from the Latin word for urine.

Yes, doctors sometimes write it as UR, but you'll usually hear the full term 'urinary retention' spoken aloud in medical conversations. The abbreviation is more common in written medical records than in spoken language.