pulse
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The regular beat of blood felt in your arteries, caused by your heart
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
puhlsIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpʌls
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
physiology
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 rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart
physiology
The nature or rate of this beat as an indication of a person's health.
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.
figuratively
A beat or throb; also, a repeated sequence of such beats or throbs.
uncountable
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.
verb
To apply an electric current or signal that varies in strength to (something).
Expand and contract rhythmically; beat rhythmically
intransitivechiefly figuratively and 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.
intransitivefiguratively
Of an activity, place, or thing: to bustle with energy and liveliness; to pulsate.
To manipulate (an electric current, electromagnetic wave, etc.) so that it is emitted in pulses.
transitivealso figuratively
To emit or impel (something) in pulses or waves.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (physiology) 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.
Used this way, pulse is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- impulse , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A sharp transient wave in the normal electrical state (or a series of such transients).
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An electronic counter that counts the number of electric pulses.
A generator of single or multiple voltage pulses.
Modulation that imposes a signal on a train of pulses.
The rate at which the heart beats.
Modulation of the time between successive pulses.
A circuit that times pulses.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A degenerate neutron star.
Disorder characterized by the absence of a pulse in both arms and in the carotid arteries.
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