Beat vs. Pulse — What's the Difference?

To surpass or outdo.

Rhythmic expansion and contraction of an artery.

The main emphasis in rhythm.

A vital or essential quality.

To strike or hit repeatedly.

Edible seeds of certain leguminous crops.

To strike repeatedly.

In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the neck (carotid artery), wrist (radial artery), at the groin (femoral artery), behind the knee (popliteal artery), near the ankle joint (posterior tibial artery), and on foot (dorsalis pedis artery).

To subject to repeated beatings or physical abuse; batter.

The rhythmical throbbing of arteries produced by the regular contractions of the heart, especially as palpated at the wrist or in the neck.

To punish by hitting or whipping; flog.

A regular or rhythmical beating.

To strike against repeatedly and with force; pound

A single beat or throb.

To flap (wings, for example).

A brief sudden change in a normally constant quantity

To strike so as to produce music or a signal

Any of a series of intermittent occurrences characterized by a brief sudden change in a quantity.

(Music) To mark or count (time or rhythm), especially with the hands or with a baton.

The perceptible emotions or sentiments of a group of people

To shape or break by repeated blows; forge

The edible seeds of certain pod-bearing plants, such as lentils and chickpeas.

To make by pounding or trampling

A plant yielding these seeds.

To mix rapidly with a utensil

To pulsate; beat

To defeat or subdue, as in a contest.

(Physics) To undergo a series of intermittent occurrences characterized by brief, sudden changes in a quantity.

To force to withdraw or retreat

To chop in short bursts, as in a food processor

To dislodge from a position

(physiology)

(Informal) To be superior to or better than

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.

(Slang) To perplex or baffle

The nature or rate of this beat as an indication of a person's health.

To avoid or counter the effects of, often by thinking ahead; circumvent

(figuratively) A beat or throb; also, a repeated sequence of such beats or throbs.

To arrive or finish before (another)

(figuratively) 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.

To deprive, as by craft or ability

An (increased) amount of a substance (such as a drug or an isotopic label) given over a short time.

(Physics) To cause a reference wave to combine with (a second wave) so that the frequency of the second wave can be studied through time variations in the amplitude of the combination.

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.

To inflict repeated blows.

The beat or tactus of a piece of music or verse; also, a repeated sequence of such beats.

To pulsate; throb.

(physics)

To emit sound when struck

A brief burst of electromagnetic energy, such as light, radio waves, etc.

To strike a drum.

Synonym of autosoliton

To flap repeatedly.

A brief increase in the strength of an electrical signal; an impulse.

To shine or glare intensely

(uncountable) Annual leguminous plants (such as beans, lentils, and peas) yielding grains or seeds used as food for humans or animals; (countable) such a plant; a legume.

To fall in torrents

(uncountable) Edible grains or seeds from leguminous plants, especially in a mature, dry condition; (countable) a specific kind of such a grain or seed.

To hunt through woods or underbrush in search of game.

To emit or impel (something) in pulses or waves.

(Nautical) To sail upwind by tacking repeatedly.

To give to (something, especially a cell culture) an (increased) amount of a substance, such as a drug or an isotopic label, over a short time.

A stroke or blow, especially one that produces a sound or serves as a signal.

To operate a food processor on (some ingredient) in short bursts, to break it up without liquidizing it.

A pulsation or throb.

To apply an electric current or signal that varies in strength to (something).

(Physics) A variation in the amplitude of a wave, especially that which results from the superpositioning of two or more waves of different frequencies. When sound waves are combined, the beat is heard as a pulsation in the sound.

To manipulate (an electric current, electromagnetic wave, etc.) so that it is emitted in pulses.

A steady succession of units of rhythm.

To expand and contract repeatedly, like an artery when blood is flowing though it, or the heart; to beat, to throb, to vibrate, to pulsate.

A gesture used by a conductor to indicate such a unit.

Of an activity, place, or thing: to bustle with energy and liveliness; to pulsate.

A pattern of stress that produces the rhythm of verse.

Leguminous plants, or their seeds, as beans, pease, etc.

A variable unit of time measuring a pause taken by an actor, as for dramatic effect.

The beating or throbbing of the heart or blood vessels, especially of the arteries.

The area regularly covered by a reporter, a police officer, or a sentry

Any measured or regular beat; any short, quick motion, regularly repeated, as of a medium in the transmission of light, sound, etc.; oscillation; vibration; pulsation; impulse; beat; movement.

The reporting of a news item obtained ahead of one's competitors.

To beat, as the arteries; to move in pulses or beats; to pulsate; to throb.

Often Beat A member of the Beat Generation.

To drive by a pulsation; to cause to pulsate.

(Informal) Worn-out; fatigued.

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

Often Beat Of or relating to the Beat Generation.

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

A stroke; a blow.

The rate at which the heart beats; usually measured to obtain a quick evaluation of a person's health

A pulsation or throb.

Edible seeds of various pod-bearing plants (peas or beans or lentils etc.)

(music) A pulse on the beat level, the metric level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit. Thus a beat is the basic time unit of a piece.

Expand and contract rhythmically; beat rhythmically;

A rhythm.

Produce or modulate (as electromagnetic waves) in the form of short bursts or pulses or cause an apparatus to produce pulses;

(music) The rhythm signalled by a conductor or other musician to the members of a group of musicians.

Drive by or as if by pulsation;

The instrumental portion of a piece of hip-hop music.

A single vibration or burst of sound or light.

The interference between two tones of almost equal frequency

A momentary increase in electrical voltage.

(authorship) A short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.

(by extension) An area of a person's responsibility, especially

The route patrolled by a police officer or a guard.

(journalism) The primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).

(dated) An act of reporting news or scientific results before a rival; a scoop.

That which beats, or surpasses, another or others.

A precinct.

(dated) A place of habitual or frequent resort.

(AU) An area frequented by gay men in search of sexual activity. See gay beat.

(archaic) A low cheat or swindler.

(hunting) The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.

(fencing) A smart tap on the adversary's blade.

(slang) A makeup look; compare beat one's face.

A beatnik.

(transitive) To hit; to strike.

(transitive) To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.

(intransitive) To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.

(intransitive) To move with pulsation or throbbing.

(transitive) To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do or be better than (someone); to excel in a particular, competitive event.

To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.

(transitive) To strike (water, foliage etc.) in order to drive out game; to travel through (a forest etc.) for hunting.

To mix food in a rapid fashion. Compare whip.

To persuade the seller to reduce a price.

(transitive) To indicate by beating or drumming.

To tread, as a path.

To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.

To be in agitation or doubt.

To make a sound when struck.

To make a succession of strokes on a drum.

To sound with more or less rapid alternations of greater and lesser intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect; said of instruments, tones, or vibrations not perfectly in unison.

(transitive) To arrive at a place before someone.

To have sexual intercourse.

To rob.

Inflection of [[:en:#Etymology_1

Inflection of [[:en:#Etymology_1

Exhausted.

Dilapidated, beat up.

Having impressively attractive makeup.

(slang) Boring.

Ugly.

Relating to the Beat Generation.

To strike repeatedly; to lay repeated blows upon; as, to beat one's breast; to beat iron so as to shape it; to beat grain, in order to force out the seeds; to beat eggs and sugar; to beat a drum.

To punish by blows; to thrash.

To scour or range over in hunting, accompanied with the noise made by striking bushes, etc., for the purpose of rousing game.

To dash against, or strike, as with water or wind.

To tread, as a path.

To overcome in a battle, contest, strife, race, game, etc.; to vanquish, defeat, or conquer; to surpass or be superior to.

To cheat; to chouse; to swindle; to defraud; - often with out.

To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.

To give the signal for, by beat of drum; to sound by beat of drum; as, to beat an alarm, a charge, a parley, a retreat; to beat the general, the reveille, the tattoo. See Alarm, Charge, Parley, etc.

To baffle or stump; to defy the comprehension of (a person); as, it beats me why he would do that.

To evade, avoid, or escape (blame, taxes, punishment); as, to beat the rap (be acquitted); to beat the sales tax by buying out of state.

To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.

To move with pulsation or throbbing.

To come or act with violence; to dash or fall with force; to strike anything, as rain, wind, and waves do.

To be in agitation or doubt.

To make progress against the wind, by sailing in a zigzag line or traverse.

To make a sound when struck; as, the drums beat.

To make a succession of strokes on a drum; as, the drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.

To sound with more or less rapid alternations of greater and less intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect; - said of instruments, tones, or vibrations, not perfectly in unison.

A stroke; a blow.

A recurring stroke; a throb; a pulsation; as, a beat of the heart; the beat of the pulse.

The rise or fall of the hand or foot, marking the divisions of time; a division of the measure so marked. In the rhythm of music the beat is the unit.

A round or course which is frequently gone over; as, a watchman's beat; analogously, for newspaper reporters, the subject or territory that they are assigned to cover; as, the Washington beat.

A place of habitual or frequent resort.

A cheat or swindler of the lowest grade; - often emphasized by dead; as, a dead beat; also, deadbeat.

One that beats, or surpasses, another or others; as, the beat of him.

The act of one that beats a person or thing

The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.

A smart tap on the adversary's blade.

Weary; tired; fatigued; exhausted.

A regular route for a sentry or policeman;

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

The basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music;

A single pulsation of an oscillation produced by adding two waves of different frequencies; has a frequency equal to the difference between the two oscillations

A member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior

The sound of stroke or blow;

(prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse

A regular rate of repetition;

A stroke or blow;

The act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing

Come out better in a competition, race, or conflict;

Give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression;

Hit repeatedly;

Move rhythmically;

Shape by beating;

Make a rhythmic sound;

Glare or strike with great intensity;

Move with a thrashing motion;

Sail with much tacking or with difficulty;

Stir vigorously;

Strike (a part of one's own body) repeatedly, as in great emotion or in accompaniment to music;

Be superior;

Avoid paying;

Make a sound like a clock or a timer;

Move with a flapping motion;

Indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks;

Move with or as if with a regular alternating motion;

Make by pounding or trampling;

Produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly;

Strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting

Beat through cleverness and wit;

Be a mystery or bewildering to;

Wear out completely;

Very tired;

A rhythmic motion or sound.

A unit of measurement in music.

Yes, "beat" can indicate surpassing someone or striking something repeatedly.

"Pulse" is more closely associated with life signs.

Not always. While both indicate rhythm, "beat" has broader applications, and "pulse" specifically denotes the heart's rhythm felt in the arteries.

Yes, "beat" can mean to strike or hit something repeatedly.

A heartbeat is the act of the heart contracting, while the pulse is the effect of this contraction felt in the arteries.

Primarily, but pulse can also refer to vibrations, bursts of light, or even edible seeds.

Generally, yes. Pulse rate typically reflects heart rate, though discrepancies can occur.

"Pulse" can refer to edible seeds like lentils and chickpeas.

Yes, in contexts like music or vibrations, but for life signs, you'd feel a pulse.

Yes, certain rhythms or tempos can influence heart rate and, subsequently, pulse.

Yes, to "beat" can mean to surpass or outdo an opponent in sports or other competitions.

"Pulse" can indicate a single burst or vibration of light or sound.

Pulse is an indicator of heart rate and health, often checked to assess an individual's vital signs.

Instruments like metronomes, drum machines, or even musical instruments can produce or detect a beat.

The beat of a song is measured in beats per minute (BPM) and indicates its tempo.