noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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CMU ARPABET:P UH1 L S ER0
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
A rotating neutron star that emits radio pulses periodically.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: astronomy, natural-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
a degenerate neutron star; small and extremely dense; rotates very fast and emits regular pulses of polarized radiation
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: neutron star
History
Etymology
Blend of pulsating + (radio) star, patterned after quasar. Coined by British astronomers Antony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell in 1968, and first used in print in The Daily Telegraph. By surface analysis, pulse + -ar
Across languages
Translations
42 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Arabic:
نباض
— rotating neutron star
Armenian:
պուլսար
(pulsar)
— rotating neutron star
Belarusian:
пульса́р
(pulʹsár)
— rotating neutron star
Bulgarian:
пулса́р
(pulsár)
— rotating neutron star
Catalan:
púlsar
— rotating neutron star
Chinese Mandarin:
脈衝星 /脉冲星
(màichōngxīng)
— rotating neutron star
Czech:
pulzar
— rotating neutron star
Czech:
pulsar
— rotating neutron star
Danish:
pulsar
— rotating neutron star
Dutch:
pulsar
— rotating neutron star
Esperanto:
pulsaro
— rotating neutron star
Finnish:
pulsari
— rotating neutron star
French:
pulsar
— rotating neutron star
Georgian:
პულსარი
(ṗulsari)
— rotating neutron star
German:
Pulsar
— rotating neutron star
Greek:
πάλσαρ
(pálsar)
— rotating neutron star
Hebrew:
פולסר
— rotating neutron star
Hungarian:
pulzár
— rotating neutron star
Ido:
pulsaro
— rotating neutron star
Irish:
pulsár
— rotating neutron star
Japanese:
パルサー
(parusā)
— rotating neutron star
Korean:
펄서
(peolseo)
— rotating neutron star
Latvian:
pulsārs
— rotating neutron star
Lithuanian:
pulsaras
— rotating neutron star
Malay:
pulsar
— rotating neutron star
Norwegian:
pulsar
— rotating neutron star
Persian:
تپاخت
— rotating neutron star
Polish:
pulsar
— rotating neutron star
Portuguese:
pulsar
— rotating neutron star
Romanian:
pulsar
— rotating neutron star
Russian:
пульса́р
(pulʹsár)
— rotating neutron star
Serbo-Croatian:
пу̀лса̄р
— rotating neutron star
Serbo-Croatian:
pùlsār
— rotating neutron star
Slovene:
púlzar
— rotating neutron star
Spanish:
púlsar
— rotating neutron star
Swedish:
pulsar
— rotating neutron star
Thai:
พัลซาร์
(pan-saa)
— rotating neutron star
Turkish:
pulsar
— rotating neutron star
Turkish:
atarca
— rotating neutron star
Ukrainian:
пульса́р
(pulʹsár)
— rotating neutron star
