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Pulsation
Definitions
- 1 The regular throbbing of the heart, an artery etc. in a living body; the pulse. countable, uncountable
"Pulsation had ceased. For three days the body was preserved unburied, during which it had acquired a stony rigidity."
- 2 the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart wordnet
- 3 Any rhythmic beating, throbbing etc. countable, uncountable
"Lo! as a dove when up she springs To bear thro’ Heaven a tale of woe, Some dolorous message knit below The wild pulsation of her wings; Like her I go; I cannot stay; I leave this mortal ark behind […]"
- 4 (electronics) a sharp transient wave in the normal electrical state (or a series of such transients) wordnet
- 5 The rhythmic increase and decrease of size in naked zoospores and plasmodia. countable, uncountable
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- 6 a periodically recurring phenomenon that alternately increases and decreases some quantity wordnet
- 7 Physical striking; a blow. archaic, countable, uncountable
"By the Cornelian law, pulsation as well as verberation is prohibited."
- 8 A single beat, throb or vibration. countable, uncountable
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English pulsacioun (“pulsing of the blood, throbbing”), borrowed from Middle French pulsacion (“(of bells) a striking (end of 14th c.); (of a diseased part of the body) a throbbing (1377); pulsation (1575)”), and its source, Latin pulsātiō (“(classical Latin) a beating or striking; (Medieval Latin, medical) rhythmical expansion and contraction (1363 in Chauliac)”). By surface analysis, pulsate + -ion.
See also for "pulsation"
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