Standard Lemma guide

pulsation

noun · 8 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

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /pʌlˈseɪʃn̩/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: /pəlˈseɪʃən/
  • rhymes with -eɪʃən

1

noun

Meaning 1

The regular throbbing of the heart, an artery etc. in a living body; the pulse.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Any rhythmic beating, throbbing etc.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

The rhythmic increase and decrease of size in naked zoospores and plasmodia.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: biology, botany, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Physical striking; a blow.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

A single beat, throb or vibration.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • he could feel the beat of her heart

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: pulse, heartbeat, beat

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: periodic event, recurrent event

Narrower terms: diastole, systole, throb, throbbing, pounding

7

noun

Meaning 7

(electronics) a sharp transient wave in the normal electrical state (or a series of such transients)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the pulsations seemed to be coming from a star

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: pulsing, pulse, impulse

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: wave, undulation

8

noun

Meaning 8

a periodically recurring phenomenon that alternately increases and decreases some quantity

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: phenomenon

History

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English pulsacioun (“pulsing of the blood, throbbing”), borrowed from Middle French pulsacion (“(of bells) a striking (end of 14th c.); (of a diseased part of the body) a throbbing (1377); pulsation (1575)”), and its source, Latin pulsātiō (“(classical Latin) a beating or striking; (Medieval Latin, medical) rhythmical expansion and contraction (1363 in Chauliac)”). By surface analysis, pulsate + -ion.

Across languages

Translations

6 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: نَبْض (nabḍ) — regular throbbing of the heart
  • Arabic: نَبْضُ القَلْب (nabḍu l-qalb) — regular throbbing of the heart
  • Bulgarian: туптене (tuptene) — regular throbbing of the heart
  • Bulgarian: пулс (puls) — regular throbbing of the heart
  • Portuguese: pulsação — regular throbbing of the heart
  • Ukrainian: пульса́ція (pulʹsácija) — regular throbbing of the heart