Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Pulses for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is "Pulses" — noun, pronounced /ˈpʌlsɪz/, with the stress on "pul".
Narrator: Pulses are the dried edible seeds of plants such as lentils, peas, chickpeas and beans.
Narrator: In plain English, pulses are dried beans and lentils.
Narrator: It comes from the Latin puls, a thick porridge made of meal or beans.
Narrator: A common collocation is "pulses and grains", which describes staple plant foods.
Narrator: It differs from "legumes", because legumes are the whole plant family, while pulses are just the dried seeds.
Narrator: In a second sense, pulses is also the plural of pulse, meaning beats or bursts of energy.
Narrator: Nutrition, farming, cooking and trade all rely on the word.
Narrator: So remember: pulses are the protein-rich seeds in your cupboard.
Speaker A: What counts as pulses in a vegan diet?
Speaker B: Lentils, chickpeas and beans! PULSES comes from the Latin for bean porridge.
Speaker A: Are fresh green beans pulses?
Speaker B: No, only the dried seeds count.
Speaker A: Example sentences?
Speaker B: "Pulses are cheap and filling", a budget tip. "Soak the pulses overnight", a cooking step. "India grows many pulses", a farming fact.
Speaker A: Common mistakes?
Speaker B: In the food sense it is almost always plural, so say "eat more pulses", not "eat more pulse".
Speaker A: Close relatives?
Speaker B: Legumes are its cousin, beans its twin, and lentils an alternative — yet pulses keep their hearty charm!
Speaker B: Let's use "pulses" in AI prompts — useful for meal planners and grocery apps.
Speaker A: How for meal planning?
Speaker B: Ask for pulse-based meals.
Prompt: Plan a five-day vegetarian menu where every dinner includes at least one type of pulses.
Speaker A: And a grocery app?
Speaker B: Categorise items.
Prompt: Sort this shopping list into pulses, grains, vegetables and dairy.
Speaker A: Could it help nutrition?
Speaker B: Yes, for comparisons.
Prompt: Compare the protein and fibre per 100 grams of lentils, chickpeas and kidney beans in a table.
Speaker A: One more?
Speaker B: A cooking assistant.
Prompt: Tell me the soaking and cooking times for common dried pulses in a short list.
Pulses — meaning in Arabic & definition More P courses GL Dictionary