Skip to content
ARCHIEENGLISH
LearnPlayWordsRanking
  • Learn
  • Play
  • Words
  • Ranking
  • Mine
← Vocabulary

palpitate

UK/ˈpælpɪteɪt/US/ˈpælpɪteɪt/
verbC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,799 of 15,258Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: palpitating

To palpitate is to beat fast and irregularly. The heart palpitated, palpitate with fear, palpitating wildly.

The noun palpitations is far commoner, and it means the sensation of being aware of your own heartbeat, which is usually harmless and occasionally not. The Latin behind the word means to throb repeatedly, and palpable is a relative.

Definitions of palpitate

  1. 1verbpalpitateTo beat fast and irregularly.C2

    “Her heart began to palpitate as she waited for the exam results.”

palpitate is a beating.

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    palpito — throb, pulsate, palpitate

  2. English, today

    palpitate

Borrowed from Latin palpito (“throb, pulsate, palpitate”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word