Meaning & use
pulse
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
The regular beating you can feel in your arteries as your heart pumps blood.
Grammar: Often used with a possessive: take someone's pulse, check your pulse.
Patterns
- take someone's pulse
- check someone's pulse
- have a weak/strong pulse
- pulse rate
The nurse took my pulse and said it was normal.
After running, his pulse was racing.
You can feel your pulse by pressing two fingers on your wrist.
nouncountabletechnical
A single short burst of sound, light, electricity, or other energy.
Grammar: Often used in technical contexts: a pulse of light, an electrical pulse.
Patterns
- a pulse of something
- send a pulse
- electrical pulse
The machine sends a pulse of electricity to the heart.
A pulse of light traveled through the fiber-optic cable.
You could hear the steady pulse of the sonar.
nouncountabletechnical
The seeds of plants such as beans, peas, and lentils, eaten as food.
Grammar: Usually plural: pulses are a good source of protein.
Patterns
- pulses are rich in protein
- a diet of pulses
Farmers in the region grow pulses like lentils and chickpeas.
Pulses are an important part of a vegetarian diet.
Word forms
| plural | pulses |
|---|
Common combinations
- take someone's pulse
- The doctor took the patient's pulse.
- pulse rate
- Your pulse rate increases when you exercise.
- feel for a pulse
- She felt for a pulse but couldn't find one.
- steady pulse
- He has a steady pulse of 70 beats per minute.
- pulse of light
- The laser emitted a pulse of light.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
Commonly confused: pulse or pulsate?
pulse vs pulsate
Pulsate is a verb meaning to throb; pulse can be a noun or verb, but as a noun it is the beat itself.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence:
Choose one answer.
Pulse is typically felt at the wrist or neck, so feeling the wrist is correct. Listening to the chest measures the heartbeat, not the pulse; looking at eyes and tapping the knee test other things.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pulse”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.