Synonyms
Examples of pulse in a Sentence
Amanda MacMillan, Health, 25 Nov. 2023
Step 2 Make the crust: To a food processor, add the pecans, pine nuts, sugar, cinnamon, and salt and pulse until the mixture resembles small pebbles.
—Lois Ellen Frank and Walter Whitewater, Saveur, 22 Nov. 2023
One of the great things about being a young entrepreneur is your ability to pivot and have a finger on the pulse of culture and what’s working.
—Jane Thier, Fortune, 19 Nov. 2023
Her work focuses on the pulse of the modern rhythms of Latinidad, arts and culture.
—Roxsy Lin, Los Angeles Times, 16 Nov. 2023
The hydration serum was infused with electroporation– short, high voltage pulses allowing serums to penetrate the skin’s barrier– enhanced with LED blue light therapy for acne.
—India Espy-Jones, Essence, 16 Nov. 2023
Add the butter and pulse until fully incorporated, then add the egg and vanilla, and pulse just until the dough comes together in large clumps.
—Genevieve Ko, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Nov. 2023
The doctor’s diagnosis and prognosis relied on reading these excreta in addition to sensing subtle changes in the pulse.
—Meg Leja, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Nov. 2023
To assess employee engagement, Allstate conducts pulse surveys.
—Paige McGlauflin, Fortune, 13 Nov. 2023
Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Nov. 2023
Even the animals that men killed for food came back to life before they could be eaten, their flesh writhing and pulsing with a dark energy.
—Keri Blakinger, New York Times, 31 Aug. 2023
But sets like this also function as X-rays of the duo’s sensibility, tracing the hip-hop and techno pulses that slide beneath the surface of even their most chaotic work.
—Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 22 Aug. 2023
Delivered over a pulsing piano that harkens to 1980s Chicago, the song ultimately lands at a heavier-sounding chorus that contemplates the couple in question as action heroes battling the world.
—Tom Roland, Billboard, 15 Nov. 2023
Even in the context of the pulsing neon goat rodeo of the Vegas Strip, this was a sensory assault.
—Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 14 Nov. 2023
The tune is more mysterious and rhythmic, with flutes pulsing over a chugging guitar, two dark chords and thundering timpani.
—Tim Greiving, Los Angeles Times, 14 Nov. 2023
His company had a San Francisco business address, but a bridge still separated him from the pulsing heart of the tech boom.
—Albert Samaha, Rolling Stone, 22 Oct. 2023
All of them smooth the transition into abstraction—into texture and movement and pure, pulsing atmosphere—and, ultimately, back into painting.
—Vince Aletti, The New Yorker, 22 Oct. 2023
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pulse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Noun (1)
Middle English pous, pouce, pulse, borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French pous, polz, puls, borrowed from Latin pulsus "action of beating or striking, beat, stroke, beat of the heart" ("pulse" in phrase pulsus venārum/artēriārum, literally, "beating of the veins/arteries"), noun of action from pellere "to beat against, push, strike, rouse, expel, repulse," of uncertain origin
Note: The etymology of pellere is problematic, because it lacks an obvious formal and semantic counterpart in other Indo-European languages. A traditional explanation derives it from a base *pel-d-, with the *-d- a present-tense formative marking an action reaching a definite termination (thus Ernout and Meillet in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine, 8. édition, 1985; cf. tender entry 3). A hypothetically related form would be Greek pállō, pállein "to poise (a missile before it is thrown), brandish, swing, shake" (Epic aorist pêlai, 3rd singular passive pálto), though semantically the comparison is weak. A base *pel-d- would correctly produce the past participle pulsus (from *poltos < *pl̥d-t-os); however the frequentative verb pultāre "to strike repeatedly," attested in Plautus alongside pulsāre, suggests that the original past participle may have been *pultus. According to an alternative hypothesis, pellere is descended from an Indo-European base *pelh2- "approach, draw near," seen in Greek pílnamai "I draw near to, make contact with," 3rd singular aorist plêto, verbal adjective in the negated form áplētos, áplātos "unapproachable, monstrous." (The assumed semantic shift is from "approach, touch" to "push, strike.") Both Latin and Greek verbs would continue a present with nasal infix *pl̥-ne-h2-/pl̥n-h2-. These presumably are seen also in Umbrian ampentu, apentu, ampetu, 3rd singular imperative (allegedly "touches, brings near," with the prefix an- "up, upon," but the meaning of this verb, describing the first action of an animal sacrifice in the Iguvine Tables, is quite uncertain); Old Irish ˑella in adˑella "(s/he) visits, approaches," doˑella "(s/he) turns aside, goes astray" (< *φal-na-?; e-vocalism is secondary) and eblaid "(s/he) will drive/impel," suppletive future to aigid "(s/he) drives" (< *pi-plā-); Middle Welsh el, 3rd person singular present subjunctive of mynet "to go" (< *pel-ase/o-). Note that alongside pellere there is a group of first-conjugation verbs with the same base pell- that occur only with prefixes: appellāre "to speak to, address, name," compellāre "to address, appeal to, rebuke," interpellāre "to interrupt" (see appeal entry 2, compellation, interpellate). According to P. Schrijver (The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Latin, Rodopi, 1991, pp. 408-12), these are a relic of an original nasal present *pel-n-a-C (< *pl̥-ne-h2- with full-grade vocalism) given a thematic suffix *-i̯e/o- in derivatives. These verbs have the common underlying sense "to address (positively or negatively)," which fits fairly well with the hypothetical meaning "approach" of the base *pelh2-. For English borrowings of prefixed forms of pellere see compel, dispel, expel, impel, propel, repel.
Noun (2)
Middle English puls, probably from Anglo-French puuiz gruel, from Latin pult-, puls, probably from Greek poltos
Noun (1)
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Verb
15th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense
Noun (2)
13th century, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing pulse
Dictionary Entries Near pulse
Cite this Entry
“Pulse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pulse. Accessed 10 Dec. 2023.
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Kids Definition
pulse
1 of 3 nounpulse
2 of 3 nounpulse
3 of 3 verb
Medical Definition
pulse
1 of 2 noun
More from Merriam-Webster on pulse
Nglish: Translation of pulse for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of pulse for Arabic Speakers
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about pulse
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