per

¹

[pur, per]

preposition

1. for each; for every.

   Membership costs ten dollars per year. This cloth is two dollars per yard.

2. by means of; by; through.

   I am sending the recipe per messenger.

3. Also according to; in accordance with.

   I delivered the box per your instructions.

   He managed to monopolize the meeting, per usual.

adverb

1. Informal.,  each; for each one.

   The charge for window-washing was five dollars per.

per-

²

1. a prefix meaning “through,” “thoroughly,” “utterly,” “very”: pervert; pervade; perfect.

2. 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 ).

per.

³

abbreviation

1. percentile.

2. period.

3. person.

Per.

⁴

abbreviation

1. Persia.

2. Persian.

per-

¹

prefix

1. through

   pervade

2. throughout

   perennial

3. away, beyond

   perfidy

4. completely, throughly

   perplex

5. (intensifier)

   perfervid

6. indicating that a chemical compound contains a high proportion of a specified element

   peroxide

   perchloride

7. indicating that a chemical element is in a higher than usual state of oxidation

   permanganate

   perchlorate

8. (not in technical usage) a variant of peroxy-

   persulphuric acid

per

²

/ pə, pɜː /

determiner

1. for every

   three pence per pound

preposition

1. (esp in some Latin phrases) by; through

2. according to

   as per specifications

3. informal,  as usual

PER

³

abbreviation

1. Professional Employment Register

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of per-¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of per-¹

from Latin per through

Origin of per-²

C15: from Latin: by, for each

Example Sentences

As part of the settlement, which the judge still needs to be approve, Anthropic agreed to pay authors $3,000 per work for an estimated 500,000 books.

From Los Angeles Times

The average number of goals per game has dropped but England outperformed their expected goals stat in 2022, while they're currently not scoring as many goals as they should be.

From BBC

The defensive numbers suggest a more aggressive approach to pressing, too, with high turnovers up from 11.1 per game to 13.7 per game, while the number of opposition passes per defensive action - such as an attempt to win the ball back - has gone down.

From BBC

The one market research report I could find pegs the digital detox industry as a growing market, but still a tiny one, doing around half a billion dollars in worldwide sales per year.

From Slate

It is about immigration per se, about non-Europeans stealing the birthright of the descendants of America’s original white Christian settlers.

From Slate