pulsation

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French pulsacion, and its source, Latin pulsātiō (“a beating or striking”).

noun

1. The regular throbbing of the heart, an artery etc. in a living body; the pulse.
   Pulsation had ceased. For three days the body was preserved unburied, during which it had acquired a stony rigidity. 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial
2. Any rhythmic beating, throbbing etc.
3. (now rare) Physical striking; a blow.
4. A single beat, throb or vibration.