Definition

1. Noun:
   • A single beat or throb, especially of the heart or arteries: A pulsation is one complete cycle of rhythmic contraction and expansion, such as the pulse felt in blood vessels.
   • A single instance of a rhythmic or periodic increase and decrease: A pulsation can refer to any single, measurable instance of a regularly fluctuating phenomenon, like a sound wave or light emission.
   • A brief, sudden change in a steady state: In technical contexts like electronics, a pulsation is a sharp, transient wave or a single spike in an electrical signal.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The doctor checked the pulsation in his wrist. (The doctor checked the rhythmic throbbing in his wrist.)
  • The machine emitted a regular pulsation of light. (The machine emitted a regular rhythmic flash of light.)
  • The oscilloscope showed an electrical pulsation. (The oscilloscope showed a sharp, brief electrical spike.)

Advanced Usage

• "To feel a pulsation": to sense a single beat or throb.

  • She felt a faint pulsation in her temple. (She sensed a weak throb in her temple.)

• In technical/scientific contexts: Used to describe individual cycles in waveforms, signals, or emissions.

  • Each pulsation of the star's radio signal was recorded. (Each individual burst of the star's radio signal was recorded.)

Variants and Related Words

• Pulse (n/v): The regular, continuous rhythm of beats (e.g., a pulse); to beat or throb rhythmically.

  • The patient has a strong pulse. (The patient has a strong rhythmic beat of the arteries.)

• Pulsate (v): To expand and contract rhythmically; to throb or vibrate.

  • The light seemed to pulsate in the dark. (The light seemed to throb rhythmically in the dark.)

Synonyms

• Beat: A single stroke or throb.
• Throb: A single, strong, often painful, beat or pulsation.
• Vibration: A single instance of rapid back-and-forth motion.

Related Phrases

• Pulsation rate: The frequency of pulsations per unit of time.
  • The engineer measured the pulsation rate of the pump. (The engineer measured how often the pump throbbed per minute.)

Related Idioms

(Note: "Pulsation" itself is a technical/scientific term and is not commonly used in idiomatic expressions. Idioms typically use the related word "pulse.")

Noun

1. the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart
   • he could feel the beat of her heart
2. a periodically recurring phenomenon that alternately increases and decreases some quantity
3. (electronics) a sharp transient wave in the normal electrical state (or a series of such transients)
   • the pulsations seemed to be coming from a star