pulse

Meaning

Noun

1. A normally regular beat felt when arteries near the skin (for example, at the neck or wrist) are depressed, caused by the heart pumping blood through them.
2. The nature or rate of this beat as an indication of a person's health.
3. (figuratively) A beat or throb; also, a repeated sequence of such beats or throbs.
4. (figuratively) The focus of energy or vigour of an activity, place, or thing; also, the feeling of bustle, busyness, or energy in a place; the heartbeat.
5. An (increased) amount of a substance (such as a drug or an isotopic label) given over a short time.
6. (attributive) A setting on a food processor which causes it to work in a series of short bursts rather than continuously, in order to break up ingredients without liquidizing them; also, a use of this setting.
7. The beat or tactus of a piece of music or verse; also, a repeated sequence of such beats.
8. A brief burst of electromagnetic energy, such as light, radio waves, etc.
9. Synonym of autosoliton (“a stable solitary localized structure that arises in nonlinear spatially extended dissipative systems due to mechanisms of self-organization”).
10. (also) A brief increase in the strength of an electrical signal; an impulse.
11. A timed, coordinated connection, when multiple public transportation vehicles are at a hub at the same time so that passengers can flexibly connect between them.

Verb

1. (also, figuratively, transitive) To emit or impel (something) in pulses or waves.
2. (transitive) To give to (something, especially a cell culture) an (increased) amount of a substance, such as a drug or an isotopic label, over a short time.
3. (transitive) To operate a food processor on (some ingredient) in short bursts, to break it up without liquidizing it.
4. (transitive) To apply an electric current or signal that varies in strength to (something).
5. (transitive) To manipulate (an electric current, electromagnetic wave, etc.) so that it is emitted in pulses.
6. (figuratively, intransitive, literary) To expand and contract repeatedly, like an artery when blood is flowing though it, or the heart; to beat, to throb, to vibrate, to pulsate.
7. (figuratively, intransitive) Of an activity, place, or thing: to bustle with energy and liveliness; to pulsate.

Synonyms

beat

heartbeat

💓

throb

pulsation

pulsate

impulse

pease

pulsating

beating

pulse rate

pulse beat

legume

wrist

ripple

heart rate

kick

palpitate

throbbing

pound

💷

pulsing

lentil

lentils

meter

motion

muscle

💪

oscillation

outburst

panting

pathos

power

quiver

rhythm

run-out

smart

sphygmus

stagger

surging

thrill

thud

thump

transient

twitch

undulate

vein

vibrate

vibration

wind

pigeon pea

plant yielding pulse

stroke of pulse

Translations

pouls

Puls

pulso

polso

pulso

latir

schlagen

klopfen

pols

battere

polsslag

pulsazione

pulsar

σφυγμός

Pronounced as (IPA)

/pʌls/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: pulse

Inherited from Middle English: pous

Cognate with French: pouls

Inherited from Middle English: pulsen

Inherited from Middle English: puls

Inherited from Middle English: pols

In summary

From Late Middle English pulse, Middle English pous, pouse (“regular beat of arteries, pulse; heartbeat; place on the body where a pulse is detectable; beat (of a musical instrument); energy, vitality”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman puls, pous, pus, and Middle French pouls, poulz, pous [and other forms], Old French pous, pulz (“regular beat of arteries; place on the body where a pulse is detectable”) (modern French pouls), and from their etymon Latin pulsus (“beat, impulse, pulse, stroke; regular beat of arteries or the heart”), from pellō (“to drive, impel, propel, push; to banish, eject, expel; to set in motion; to strike”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to beat, strike; to drive; to push, thrust”)) + -sus (a variant of -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs)).