Pulse

How to spell pulse

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce pulse

What does pulse mean?

1. nounThe rhythmic throbbing of the arteries as blood is pumped through them, felt at the wrist or neck.
2. verbTo beat, throb, or move in a steady rhythmic way.
3. nounThe edible seeds of legumes, such as lentils, chickpeas, beans, and peas, eaten as food.

Pulse in a sentence

• noun

  The nurse checked his pulse before recording the blood pressure.

• verb

  The bass from the club below made the floor pulse all night.

• noun

  The recipe uses a dried pulse such as red lentils for thickness.

• noun

  A runner with a low resting pulse is often very fit.

• verb

  Warning lights pulse in slow red waves across the dashboard.

• noun

  Every pulse in the bag must be rinsed before cooking.

Where does pulse come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The medical and rhythmic sense of pulse comes from the Latin pulsus, meaning 'a beating' or 'a striking', which is the past participle of pellere, 'to drive, push, or strike'. Latin doctors used pulsus venarum to describe the beating of the veins, and English took the word in around the 1300s through Old French as the throb felt in an artery. The same pellere root drives a whole family of English words about pushing and striking, including 'expel', 'compel', 'propel', and 'repulse', so it is worth remembering that a pulse is literally something that beats or pushes. The unrelated food sense, the edible seeds of legumes such as lentils, beans, and peas, comes from a different Latin word, puls, meaning a thick porridge or pottage made from such seeds. The two strands fell together in the modern spelling, which keeps the single -l- and the silent final -e.

How the word is built

• puls (from Latin pellere, pulsus: to drive, to beat)
• silent -e