nitrato

nitrate

noun nee-TRAH-toh Rare

Usage Note

Nitrato appears in chemistry, agriculture, and food-safety contexts. In food labelling, nitrato de sodio (sodium nitrate) and nitrito de sodio (sodium nitrite) are sometimes confused — nitrato and nitrito are distinct compounds. Chile's 19th-century economy was built on nitrato extraction (saltpetre) from the Atacama Desert, making the word historically significant in Latin American contexts.

Examples

"El fertilizante contiene nitrato de amonio."

Natural Translation

The fertilizer contains ammonium nitrate.

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