pulse
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.
Noun 4 meanings
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.”
The rate of this beat as an indication of a person's health.
“Her pulse was 110 at 8 a.m.”
A beat or throb; also, a repeated sequence of such beats or throbs.
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.
“You can really feel the pulse of the city in this district.”
Verb 4 meanings
To emit or impel (something) in pulses or waves.
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.
To operate a food processor on (some ingredient) in short bursts, to break it up without liquidizing it.
To apply an electric current or signal that varies in strength to (something).
Etymology
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)).
Similar and opposite words
PULSE at a glance
PULSE has 5 letters and scores 7 points in Scrabble (P 3 + U 1 + L 1 + S 1 + E 1) and 10 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #6,405 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.
Rhymes with pulse
All rhymesOne letter away
- PURSE7
- DULSE6
- BULSE7
- MULSE7
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