WordGarden.iopulp
B2Pronunciation
UK
- /pˈʌlp/
US
- /ˈpəlp/
Meanings
Noun
the soft inner mass of a fruit or vegetable, or the bits of it in juice
a wet mass of wood fiber or other material used to make paper
cheap, sensational popular fiction or the magazines that publish it
More meaningsFewer meanings
the soft tissue inside a tooth containing nerves and blood vessels
Verb
to crush or reduce something to a soft wet mass
Beyond the definition
You probably know pulp as the soft, mushy part inside fruits like oranges. That is the original meaning. But in the 20th century, the word also came to mean cheap magazines full of exciting stories like crime, adventure, westerns, and science fiction. From there, "pulp fiction" came to mean stories that are made to be thrilling rather than refined.
If you're making juice, you're dealing with fruit pulp. If someone collected old magazines with bright, dramatic covers, they may have been reading pulp magazines. And if a person or thing is described as being "beaten to a pulp" or crushed to a pulp, it means they were badly damaged and left as a soft mass. It is a word with a few very different but connected uses.
The word "pulp" originally referred to the soft, moist inner part of fruits and vegetables—think orange pulp, apple pulp, or even the fleshy interior of a squash. This is where the word gets its sense of being soft, moist, and somewhat formless. "She strained the juice through a sieve to remove the pulp." This biological meaning extends even further to our own bodies; for instance, "dental pulp" is the soft tissue and nerves found in the center of a tooth.
However, in the early 20th century, "pulp" took on a second, very famous meaning. It began to describe inexpensive magazines printed on rough, low-quality wood-pulp paper. These magazines featured sensational stories—often adventure, crime, science fiction, or westerns—aimed at a mass audience. They were known as "pulps" because of the cheap material they were made from and their focus on exciting, fast-paced narratives. Legendary authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs (creator of Tarzan) and Raymond Chandler first found success in these magazines. We still use "pulp fiction" today to describe light, sensational, and often gritty stories.
Finally, "pulp" has a grimmer application: describing something severely damaged or reduced to a soft mass. This usage evokes the image of something being pulverized or broken into tiny pieces. The common idiom "beaten to a pulp" reflects extreme physical trauma. You might also hear it in a mechanical sense: "The car was completely wrecked, crushed to a pulp after the collision."
So, whether you're enjoying a glass of orange juice, reminiscing about vintage magazines, or visiting the dentist, "pulp" is a versatile word that speaks to texture, entertainment, and the physical state of matter.
Examples
- 1
Fruit juice
I prefer orange juice with pulp.
- 2
Fruit preparation
Scoop out the passion fruit pulp and mix it into yogurt.
- 3
Cooked food
The tomatoes had cooked down to a thick pulp.
- 4
Paper making
The company makes paper from recycled wood pulp.
More examplesFewer examples
- 5
Violence idiom
The boxer beat his opponent to a pulp.
- Phrasebeat someone to a pulp
hit them until they are badly hurt
- 6
Crime fiction
She loves old pulp detective novels from the 1930s.
- Phrasepulp detective novels
cheap, exciting crime stories
See also
Forms and spellings
4 forms open this card.
Main spelling
- pulpnounverb
Forms
- pulpsverbnoun
- pulpedpast tenseverbnoun
- pulping-ing formverbnoun