# pulse

> English word · Noun · IPA /pʌls/ · frequency rank #6,507

## Definitions
1. A normally regular beat felt when arteries near the skin (for example, at the neck or wrist) are depressed, caused by the heart pumping blood through them; the qualitative nature of this beat.
2. The rate of this beat as an indication of a person's health.
3. A beat or throb; also, a repeated sequence of such beats or throbs.
4. The focus of energy or vigour of an activity, place, or thing; also, the feeling of bustle, busyness, or energy in a place; the heartbeat.
5. An (increased) amount of a substance (such as a drug or an isotopic label) given over a short time.
6. A setting on a food processor which causes it to work in a series of short bursts rather than continuously, in order to break up ingredients without liquidizing them; also, a use of this setting.
7. The beat or tactus of a piece of music or verse; also, a repeated sequence of such beats.
8. A brief burst of electromagnetic energy, such as light, radio waves, etc.
9. Synonym of autosoliton (“a stable solitary localized structure that arises in nonlinear spatially extended dissipative systems due to mechanisms of self-organization”).
10. A brief increase in the strength of an electrical signal; an impulse.
11. A timed, coordinated connection, when multiple public transportation vehicles are at a hub at the same time so that passengers can flexibly connect between them.

## Etymology
From Late Middle English pulse, Middle English pous, pouse (“regular beat of arteries, pulse; heartbeat; place on the body where a pulse is detectable; beat (of a musical instrument); energy, vitality”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman puls, pous, pus, and Middle French pouls, poulz, pous [and other forms], Old French pous, pulz (“regular beat of arteries; place on the body where a pulse is detectable”) (modern French pouls), and from their etymon Latin pulsus (“beat, impulse, pulse, stroke; regular beat of arteries or the heart”), from pellō (“to drive, impel, propel, push; to banish, eject, expel; to set in motion; to strike”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to beat, strike; to drive; to push, thrust”)) + -sus (a variant of -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs)).

## Easily confused with
- **pus** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-pus)
- **push** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-push)
- **pure** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-pure)
- **puts** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-puts)
- **Pune** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-pune)
- **pups** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-pups)
- **puns** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-puns)
- **puss** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-puss)
- **pussy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-pussy)
- **purse** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-purse)
- **purge** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-purge)
- **pursue** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-pursue)
- **pulses** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-pulses)
- **pulsed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulse-vs-pulsed)
- **pull** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pull-vs-pulse)
- **pole** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pole-vs-pulse)
- **pile** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pile-vs-pulse)
- **pose** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pose-vs-pulse)
- **pale** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pale-vs-pulse)
- **pulp** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pulp-vs-pulse)

## Common misspellings (7)
`pluse`, `ppulse`, `pules`, `pullse`, `pulsse`, `pusle`, `uplse`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/pulse