Word.ws English Dictionary

pulsate

UK/pʌlˈseɪt//ˈpʌl.seɪt/

pulsate verb: to expand and contract rhythmically; to throb or to beat, exhibit a pulse.

Verb

pulsate (third-person singular simple present pulsates, present participle pulsating, simple past and past participle pulsated)

  1. (intransitive) To expand and contract rhythmically; to throb or to beat, exhibit a pulse.
  2. (intransitive) To quiver, vibrate, or flash; as to the beat of music.
    • The party pulsated with revellers.
  3. (figuratively, intransitive) To pulse, to be full of life, energy: to bustle, thrive, flourish.
  4. (transitive) To produce a recurring increase and decrease of some quantity.

pulsate meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

pulsate in Urdu

دھڑکنا, لپکنا, پھڑکنا

pulsate in Bengali

স্পন্দিত হওয়া, ধকধক করা

pulsate in Malayalam

pulse, palpitate, throb
സ്പന്ദിക്കുക, തുടിക്കുക, പ്രകമ്പനംചെയ്ക, പ്രസ്ഫുരിക്കുക, ശക്തിയായി നെഞ്ചിടിക്കുക, ചങ്കിടിക്കുക

pulsate in Kannada

ಎದೆಹಾರು, ಎದೆಬಡಿ, ಗುಕ್ಕೆನ್ನು, ಅದಿರಾಡು, ಕಂಪಿಸು, ಸ್ಪಂದಿಸು
More languagesFewer languages
pulsate in Sanskrit
पोस्फोर्ति posphorti, स्फुरति sphuráti

Examples of pulsate in a sentence

  • Did Father Xenomorphmas bring you any pulsating, slimy sacks of goodness?
  • I was surprised how as some my gaydar and lesdar were pulsating as I walked the streets.
  • What everybody doesn't know is the hot pulsating goodies Helen Reddy's got to offer up.

All 11 example sentences with pulsate

Forms of pulsate

third-person singular presentpulsates
present participlepulsating
past participlepulsated
pastpulsated

Origin of pulsate

Perhaps formed within English as a back-formation from pulsation (attested from the early 15th century, in Middle English). A figurative derivation from New Latin pulsō, pulsātum (“(of an organ) to pulse, to emit a pulse”, intransitive) is also possible, itself a back-formation of New Latin pulsātiō (“pulsation”, 14th century), or derived from classical Latin pulsō (“to strike repeatedly”, transitive) with semantic influence from classical pulsus (“a pulse”). Ultimately from Latin pellō (“to strike”). By surface analysis, pulse + -ate (verb-forming suffix). Doublet of push.

Words formed from pulsate

Words that rhyme with pulsate

Questions about pulsate

What does pulsate mean?
Pulsate means to expand and contract rhythmically; to throb or to beat, exhibit a pulse.
What is pulsate in Urdu?
Pulsate in Urdu is دھڑکنا, لپکنا, پھڑکنا. See Pulsate meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is pulsate?
Pulsate is a verb.
How do you pronounce pulsate?
Pulsate is pronounced /pʌlˈseɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of pulsate?
The past tense of pulsate is pulsated.

Words near pulsate in the dictionary

  1. pulsar wind nebulas
  2. pulsarlike
  3. pulsars
  4. pulsatance
  5. pulsatances
  6. pulsate
  7. pulsated
  8. pulsates
  9. pulsatile
  10. pulsatile tinnitus
  11. pulsatilities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pulsate (page history and authors); pulsate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pulsate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pulsate (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); pulsate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); पोस्फोर्ति (Sanskrit) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pulsate.ogg, en-au-pulsate.ogg.

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