Cadmium contamination in soil has become a serious issue in sustainable agriculture production and food safety. A pot experiment was conducted to study the influence of four N fertilizer forms on grain yield, Cd concentration in plant tissues and oxidative stress under two Cd levels (0 and 100 mgCd kg(-1) soil). The results showed that both N form and Cd stress affected grain yield, with urea-N and NH4+-N treatments having significantly higher grain yields, and Cd addition reducing yield. NO3--N and NH4+-N treated plants had the highest and lowest Cd concentration in plant tissues, respectively. Urea-N and NH4+-N treatments had significantly higher N accumulation in plant tissues than other two N treatments. CA addition caused a significant increase in leaf superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) activities for all N treatments, except for NO3--N treatment, with urea-N and NH4+-N treated plants having more increase than organic-N treated ones. The results indicated that growth inhibition, yield reduction and Cd uptake of rice plants in response to Cd addition varied with the N fertilizer form. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.