What does "pulse" mean?
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; the qualitative nature of this beat.
Pulse
/pʌls/ noun, verb
noun, verb ·Common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: 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; the qualitative nature of this beat.
- Grammar: pulse is listed as noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: beat, heartbeat, impulse, pulsation.
- Useful contrasts: animal product, asystole, cease.
- Usage evidence: The doctor thought the patient's pulse was rather rapid.
How to use "pulse"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "pulse" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "pulse" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "pulse" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "pulse" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "pulse" is acting as noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "beat" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "pulse", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
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; the qualitative nature of this beat.
"Her pulse was thready and weak."
- 2 Annual leguminous plants (such as beans, lentils, and peas) yielding grains or seeds used as food for humans or animals; (countable) such a plant; a legume. uncountable
"Wild nuts, peas, vetch, a legume which had edible seed pods, and grasses were often combined with pulses like beans or lentils, the most commonly identified ingredient, and at times, wild mustard. To make the plants more palatable, pulses, which have a naturally bitter taste, were soaked, coarsely ground or pounded with stones to remove their husk."
- 3 the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart wordnet
- 4 The rate of this beat as an indication of a person's health. broadly, metonymically
"Her pulse was 110 at 8 a.m."
- 5 Edible grains or seeds from leguminous plants, especially in a mature, dry condition; (countable) a specific kind of such a grain or seed. uncountable
Show 12 more definitions
- 6 (electronics) a sharp transient wave in the normal electrical state (or a series of such transients) wordnet
- 7 A beat or throb; also, a repeated sequence of such beats or throbs. figuratively
"When the ear receives any ſimple ſound, it is ſtruck by a ſingle pulſe of the air, which makes the ear-drum and the other membranous parts vibrate according to the nature and ſpecies of the ſtroke."
- 8 edible seeds of various pod-bearing plants (peas or beans or lentils etc.) wordnet
- 9 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. figuratively
"You can really feel the pulse of the city in this district."
- 10 the rate at which the heart beats; usually measured to obtain a quick evaluation of a person's health wordnet
- 11 An (increased) amount of a substance (such as a drug or an isotopic label) given over a short time.
- 12 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. attributive
- 13 The beat or tactus of a piece of music or verse; also, a repeated sequence of such beats.
- 14 A brief burst of electromagnetic energy, such as light, radio waves, etc.
"A thin ruby crystal is illuminated by two successive intense short pulses of coherent light, t seconds apart, obtained from a ruby-laser source. As expected, the crystal will transmit the two pulses t seconds apart. But then one observes a curious additional feature: a third light pulse emerges spontaneously from the crystal about t seconds following the second pulse, and still relatively intense."
- 15 Synonym of autosoliton (“a stable solitary localized structure that arises in nonlinear spatially extended dissipative systems due to mechanisms of self-organization”).
- 16 A brief increase in the strength of an electrical signal; an impulse. also
- 17 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 To emit or impel (something) in pulses or waves. also, figuratively, transitive
"Though a light of love she swimmeth, / Zoned with utterless desire, / And the air of her swift coming / Through thy hot veins pulseth fire."
- 2 produce or modulate (as electromagnetic waves) in the form of short bursts or pulses or cause an apparatus to produce pulses wordnet
- 3 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. transitive
- 4 expand and contract rhythmically; beat rhythmically wordnet
- 5 To operate a food processor on (some ingredient) in short bursts, to break it up without liquidizing it. transitive
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 drive by or as if by pulsation wordnet
- 7 To apply an electric current or signal that varies in strength to (something). transitive
- 8 To manipulate (an electric current, electromagnetic wave, etc.) so that it is emitted in pulses. transitive
- 9 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. figuratively, intransitive, literary
"Hot blood pulsed through my veins as I grew angrier."
- 10 Of an activity, place, or thing: to bustle with energy and liveliness; to pulsate. figuratively, intransitive
"There is a dangerous censoriousness pulsing through American society. In small towns and big cities alike, would-be commissars are fighting, in the name of a distinct minority of Americans, to stifle open discussion and impose their views on the community at large. Dissenters, when they speak out, are hounded, ostracized and sometimes even forced from their jobs."
Example
"The doctor thought the patient's pulse was rather rapid."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "pulse"?
Common synonyms include: beat, heartbeat, impulse, pulsation, abrupt spike, accent.
How do you use "pulse" in a sentence?
The doctor thought the patient's pulse was rather rapid.
How do you pronounce "pulse"?
Pronounced /pʌls/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
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)).
Etymology 2
From Late Middle English pulse, Middle English pulsen (“to pulse, throb”), from Latin pulsāre, the present active infinitive of pulsō (“to push; to beat, batter, hammer, strike; to knock on; (figuratively) to drive or urge on, impel; to move; to agitate, disquiet, disturb”), the frequentative of pellō (“to drive, impel, propel, push; to banish, eject, expel; to set in motion; to strike”); see further at etymology 1. Doublet of push.
Etymology 3
From Middle English puls (“(collectively) seeds of a leguminous plant used as food; leguminous plants collectively; a species of leguminous plant”), Early Middle English pols (in compounds), possibly from Anglo-Norman pus, puz, Middle French pouls, pols, pous, and Old French pous, pou (“gruel, mash, porridge”) (perhaps in the sense of a gruel made from pulses), or directly from their etymon Latin puls (“meal (coarse-ground edible part of various grains); porridge”), probably from Ancient Greek πόλτος (póltos, “porridge made from flour”), from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“dust; flour”) (perhaps by extension from *pel- (“to beat, strike; to drive; to push, thrust”), in the sense of something beaten).