Word.ws English Dictionary

palp

/pælp/

palp noun: synonym of pedipalp. Also the clipping of palpation.

Noun (1)

palp (plural palps or palpi)

  1. Synonym of pedipalp.
    • Below her formidable eyes her fangs are flanked by limb-like mouthparts: her palps, coloured a startling white like a quivering moustache.2015, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Time, Pan Books (2016), page 20
    Synonyms:
    pedipalp

Noun (2)

palp (countable and uncountable, plural palps)

  1. A fleshy part of a fingertip.
    • He folded his razor neatly and with stroking palps of fingers felt the smooth skin.1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC
    • The palps of her fingers itched, thickened, erected with the need to touch the bent head. Plunge into the dust-moted rough blackness of his hair, smooth back downward over the deep-brown nape of his neck.1964, K. B. Gilden, Hurry Sundown
    Synonyms:
    pulp

Verb

palp (third-person singular simple present palps, present participle palping, simple past and past participle palped)

  1. To feel, to explore by touch.
    • It is not possible to examine a male patient without making him undress and actually palping him all over.1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 729

Adjective

palp (not comparable)

  1. (colloquial) Palpatory; obtained by palpation.
    • palp blood pressure

Also used as

palp is also the clipping of palpation.

Examples of palp in a sentence

  • With the palp of a forefinger he squeezed moisture from his wiry blond eyebrows.1984, W. Boyd, Stars & Bars, i.i.11:
  • When Mariuchi caresses the plant, for example, sensuously emitting from the palps of her fingers, a siren song.1998, Renny Christopher, Linda Strom, Lisa Orr, Working Class Studies: 1 & 2, Feminist Press at CUNY, →ISBN, page 165:
  • He tested the blade against the palp of his thumb, then returned to the living room and decisively, scrape by scrape, cut away the hex sign, leaving a halo of ragged wood.2008, John Gardner, Mickelsson's Ghosts, New Directions Publishing, →ISBN, page 130:
  • The bag seethed in her hand, not unpleasantly, as computational monofilaments shifted and flowed under her touch until they cradled the palps of her fingers.2012, Sean Stewart, Star Wars: Dark Rendezvous, Random House, →ISBN:

Synonyms of palp

Forms of palp

Noun
pluralpalps
pluralpalpi
Verb
third-person singular presentpalps
present participlepalping
past participlepalped
pastpalped

Origin of palp

* (verb): From French palper. * (noun): From New Latin palpus (“a feeler”). * Both ultimately from Latin palpō (“to stroke, touch softly, feel”).

Words formed from palp

Words that rhyme with palp

Questions about palp

What does palp mean?
Palp means synonym of pedipalp.
How do you use palp in a sentence?
With the palp of a forefinger he squeezed moisture from his wiry blond eyebrows.
What part of speech is palp?
Palp can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce palp?
Palp is pronounced /pælp/.
What is the plural of palp?
The plural of palp is palps.

Words near palp in the dictionary

  1. palousers
  2. palov
  3. palovarotene
  4. paloverde
  5. paloverdes
  6. palp
  7. palpabilities
  8. palpability
  9. palpable
  10. palpableness
  11. palpably

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: palp (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-palp.wav.

Cite this entry: “palp.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/palp. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.