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

Etymology

Origin of pulp

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

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

The researchers don’t yet know exactly what it will cost to cultivate, harvest, transport and process hesperaloe into pulp at scale, but say early signs are that the cost could compare favorably with wood.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

When the skin has collapsed into your palm like a deflated balloon, you lift the box grater and discover an almost implausible amount of ruby pulp underneath it.

From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2026

Founded as a ground wood pulp mill on the banks of Finland’s Nokianvirta River in 1865, the company evolved through rubber and cables before it became known for mobile handsets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

In the mango-growing heartland of Tando Allahyar, Mohammad Shakeel manages orchards that grow the golden-yellow Sindhri variety, named after the province where it flourishes and famous for its rich flavour and juicy pulp.

From Barron's ● Jun. 21, 2026

I'm mashing my food to a pulp when Helene walks into the crowded mess hall.

From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir

Following World War I, fantastic “art” was largely identified with Surrealism, while popular fantasy was mostly quartered within the new mass-market ghettos of pulps, comics, film marketing and paperback books.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 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

She’s the one with the purple hair and chunky glasses — not the sort of cover model you’d see in the original pulps.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2022

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

Squeeze out the pulps and put them in one vessel, the skins into another.

From The International Jewish Cook Book 1600 Recipes According to the Jewish Dietary Laws with the Rules for Kashering; the Favorite Recipes of America, Austria, Germany, Russia, France, Poland, Roumania, Etc., Etc. by Florence Kreisler Greenbaum

Nonetheless, the idea that books are being pulped is causing unease.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

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

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

“Nobody likes to throw a book away. Nobody likes to see it go into a bin,” says Michael Powell of Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore. Owners never want to see their hardback babies pulped.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 19, 2022

Paper birds, paper maps, paper people, dust and ink and pulped wood and time.

From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill

"The pulping and the storage of the pulp."

From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024

All are “vertically integrated” — they have harvesting and pulping capabilities as well as box-making plants and distribution networks — and most have grown, like predatory aquarium fish, by devouring their smaller peers.

From New York Times ● Nov. 28, 2022

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

Books like that, victims of their own success, are still destined for pulping and recycling into cardboard, which can at least be used to package up another second-hand book.

From BBC ● Dec. 27, 2018

The process of pulping is simplicity itself; the trees are felled in the forests on the hillsides close by, and sawn into blocks.

From Peeps at Many Lands: Norway by A. Heaton (Alfred Heaton) Cooper

Related Words

• paste