pulp

American  

[puhlp] / pʌlp /

noun

1. the soft, juicy, edible part of a fruit.

2. the pith of the stem of a plant.

3. a soft or fleshy part of an animal body.

4. Also called dental pulp. the inner substance of the tooth, containing arteries, veins, and lymphatic and nerve tissue that communicate with their respective vascular, lymph, and nerve systems.

5. any soft, moist, slightly cohering mass, as that into which linen, wood, etc., are converted in the making of paper.

6. a magazine or book printed on rough, low-quality paper made of wood pulp or rags, and usually containing sensational and lurid stories, articles, etc.

7. Mining.

   1. ore pulverized and mixed with water.

   2. dry crushed ore.

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verb (used with object)

• pulps,
  present (3rd person singular)
• pulped,
  past participle,  past
• pulping
  present participle

1. to reduce to pulp.

2. to reduce (printed papers, books, etc.) to pulp for use in making new paper.

3. to remove the pulp from.

verb (used without object)

• pulps,
  present (3rd person singular)
• pulped,
  past participle,  past
• pulping
  present participle

1. to become reduced to pulp.

pulp British  

/ pʌlp /

noun

1. soft or fleshy plant tissue, such as the succulent part of a fleshy fruit

2. a moist mixture of cellulose fibres, as obtained from wood, from which paper is made

3. 1. a magazine or book containing trite or sensational material, and usually printed on cheap rough paper

   2. ( as modifier )

      a pulp novel

4. dentistry the soft innermost part of a tooth, containing nerves and blood vessels

5. any soft soggy mass or substance

6. mining pulverized ore, esp when mixed with water

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verb

1. to reduce (a material or solid substance) to pulp or (of a material or solid substance) to be reduced to pulp

2. (tr) to remove the pulp from (fruit)

pulp Scientific  

/ pŭlp /

1. The soft tissue forming the inner structure of a tooth and containing nerves and blood vessels.

2. The soft moist part of a fruit, especially a drupe or pome.

3. The soft pith forming the contents of the stem of a plant.

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pulp Cultural  

1. The soft tissue, containing blood vessels and nerves, that makes up the interior of the tooth.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pulper
  noun
• depulp
  verb (used with object)
• pulpless
  adjective
• pulplike
  adjective
• unpulped
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• pulping
  present
• pulped
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• pulp
  simple
• pulps
  simple
• have pulped
  perfect
• has pulped
  perfect
• am pulping
  progressive
• are pulping
  progressive
• is pulping
  progressive
• have been pulping
  perfect progressive
• has been pulping
  perfect progressive

Past

• pulped
  simple
• had pulped
  perfect
• was pulping
  progressive
• were pulping
  progressive
• had been pulping
  perfect progressive

Future

• will pulp
  simple
• will have pulped
  perfect
• will be pulping
  progressive
• will have been pulping
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of pulp

1555–65; earlier pulpe < Latin pulpa flesh, pulp of fruit

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Explanation

Pulp is a soft, squishy, or slightly wet mush. The soft inside part of your tooth is pulp, and the soft flesh of a peach is also pulp. There are many kinds of pulp, including the soggy stuff that starts out as trees and ends up as paper. The process of turning wood into paper starts with pulp, the stripped wood fibers that are steamed and ground or mixed with chemicals before being bleached and dried. Magazines printed on very rough, inexpensive paper were once also referred to as pulps, leading to the name "pulp fiction" for cheap, sensational books and magazines.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pulp pulps pulped pulping

Having come face to face with its most brutal consequences, Cassie’s rose-colored glasses have been removed, stomped on, ground to a pulp and had their remains burnt to ash.

From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026

But even then, the film feels energized by its bold mixture of pulp pleasures and weighty musings, operating with a bruising efficiency that Ali’s skilled assassin would no doubt respect.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Cheaper, faster-growing eucalyptus from Brazil, excluded from recent tariffs, has displaced domestic pulp.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

For now, Carney's planned Canadian retaliatory duties are strategic "dollar-for-dollar" countermeasures focused on steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, electronics, pulp and paper - though the list is still being finalised.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026

Tiny black ants were scurrying over the shattered melons; the flies were rubbing their feet on fragments of pulp and rind.

From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko

Although similar imagery would grace the covers of salacious pulp magazines after World War I, there was a difference between Picou’s era and that of the pulps.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025

Lee, being Lee, believes otherwise, spurred on by his discovery of pages of purple prose that Dale hid inside his Jim Thompson crime pulps.

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2025

Maggie Gourlay pulps old screen prints and forms the residues into target-like rounds whose faintly hued, single-color circles she calls “growth rings.”

From Washington Post ● Jan. 13, 2023

You remember the children you got that you did not get, The damp small pulps with a little or with no hair, The singers and workers that never handled the air.

From New York Times ● Dec. 2, 2021

Brown a golden color two medium sized chopped onions in hot butter, add the chilli pulps with half a cup of chicken broth, cover pan and cook slowly fifteen minutes.

From Civic League Cook Book by

Southern California’s “Edenic” climate would be promoted on paper made from the pulped trunks of “demoniacal” trees.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 18, 2025

While their treatment of the ancient world is informed, to say the least, by their prior work, the scenario also feels like Hallmark pulped through a Disney strainer.

From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2023

The Turner Prize-nominated artist David Shrigley has pulped 6,000 copies of Dan Brown's best-seller The Da Vinci Code and republished them as George Orwell's novel 1984.

From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2023

She counseled readers to stick to fresh grated coconut, sweetened with a little sugar in alternating layers with pulped oranges.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 21, 2023

They’d pulped a coconut, which they were using for shaving cream.

From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray

In a lab in a renovated warehouse on the banks of a churning, brown river in Belém, Brazil, machines are pulping candidates for the next global "superfood".

From BBC ● Nov. 16, 2025

"The pulping and the storage of the pulp."

From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024

Healthcare providers should be “shredding, burning, pulping, or pulverizing” paper patient health records, the agency says in an FAQ.

From The Verge ● Aug. 30, 2022

When pro-democracy protesters stormed the secret police precincts in 1989 and 1990, they found officers at work inside, shredding, pulping and tearing documents by hand.

From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2021

The cylinder rotates against a breast with pulping edges set at an angle.

From All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

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