palpitation
AmericanUsage
What does palpitation mean? Palpitation is most commonly used to refer to a heart palpitation—an unusually or abnormally rapid or violent beating of the heart. Heart palpitations typically involve the heart beating hard and faster, and they may also involve an irregularity in rhythm. Palpitation can also refer to the act, process, or an instance of palpitating—pulsing, throbbing, or trembling. When your heart palpitates, it beats more quickly or in a fluttering way. Example: My doctor said my heart palpitations may be due to a combination of stress and too much caffeine.
Etymology
Origin of palpitation
1595–1605; < Latin palpitātiōn- (stem of palpitātiō ) a throbbing. See palpitate, -ion
Explanation
A palpitation is when your heart beats quickly and irregularly. It's also any kind of shaky, quivery motion. You know how your heart goes a mile a minute when you're excited? Then you've felt palpitations: that's when your heart beats fast and out of rhythm. Palpitations can be nothing serious or they could be signs of heart trouble. Also, a palpitation is any type of shaky motion, such as quivering or trembling. People with Parkinson's disorder have a lot of palpitations, and we all have palpitations — such as shaky hands — when we're nervous.
Vocabulary lists containing palpitation
"Civil Disobedience," Vocabulary from the essay
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But coffee consumption can lead to an increase in another type of heart palpitation, known as premature ventricular contractions.
From Washington Post • Mar. 22, 2023
And you have that moment of heart palpitation thinking, Please, Tiger, pop out.
From Golf Digest • Aug. 19, 2019
Why, in an event of madness, they hardly knew even a palpitation.
From Washington Post • Apr. 2, 2018
There were his “fits” brought on by “excitements,” “flurries” leading to an “uncomfortable palpitation of the heart” and “air fatigues” that triggered his “head symptoms.”
From New York Times • Feb. 26, 2010
So the palpitation would show up on the graph.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
