per
1 Americanpreposition
-
for each; for every.
Membership costs ten dollars per year. This cloth is two dollars per yard.
-
by means of; by; through.
I am sending the recipe per messenger.
-
Also according to; in accordance with.
I delivered the box per your instructions.
He managed to monopolize the meeting, per usual.
adverb
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a prefix meaning “through,” “thoroughly,” “utterly,” “very”: pervert; pervade; perfect.
-
Chemistry. a prefix used in the names of inorganic acids and their salts that possess the maximum amount of the element specified in the base word: percarbonic (H 2 C 2 O5 ), permanganic (HMnO4 ), persulfuric (H 2 S 2 O8 ), acids; potassium permanganate (KMnO4 ); potassium persulfate (K 2 S 2 O8 ).
abbreviation
-
percentile.
-
period.
-
person.
abbreviation
-
Persia.
-
Persian.
prefix
-
through
pervade
-
throughout
perennial
-
away, beyond
perfidy
-
completely, throughly
perplex
-
(intensifier)
perfervid
-
indicating that a chemical compound contains a high proportion of a specified element
peroxide
perchloride
-
indicating that a chemical element is in a higher than usual state of oxidation
permanganate
perchlorate
-
(not in technical usage) a variant of peroxy-
persulphuric acid
determiner
preposition
-
(esp in some Latin phrases) by; through
-
according to
as per specifications
-
informal as usual
abbreviation
Usage
Per meaning a or an or for each occurs chiefly in technical or statistical contexts: miles per gallon; work-hours per week; feet per second; gallons of beer per person per year. It is also common in sports commentary: He averaged 16 points per quarter. Per is sometimes criticized in business writing in the sense “according to” and is rare in literary writing.
Etymology
Origin of per1
First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin: “through, by, for, for each”; for
Origin of per-2
From Latin, combining form of per, and used as an intensive; per
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.
Short-term plans may also have maximum benefit amounts as low as $100,000 per policy term, whereas ACA-compliant plans don’t put a dollar cap on benefits.
From Barron's
Forté’s death is being investigated by the state medical examiner’s office in Massachusetts, per the Vineyard Gazette.
From Los Angeles Times
He added that $350 million for affordable housing would create about 350 units of affordable housing per year, which would not do much to affect the city’s housing crisis.
From Los Angeles Times
Were the U.S. to replace that Danish grant, that alone would make the island’s residents the largest per capita recipients of federal grants, surpassing denizens of Alaska or Washington, D.C.
During the regular season, the Bears gave up 24.4 points and 361.8 yards per game, which ranked 23rd and 28th, respectively, among 32 NFL teams.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
