per [pur; unstressed per] ExamplesWord Origin See more synonyms for per on Thesaurus.com preposition
- 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.
- according to; in accordance with: I delivered the box per your instructions.
adverb
- Informal. each; for each one: The charge for window-washing was five dollars per.
Origin of per 1580–90; Latin: through, by, for, for each. See for Can be confusedper purr (see usage note at the current entry)Usage note Per for 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. per-
- 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 (H2C2O5), permanganic (HMnO4), persulfuric (H2S2O8), acids; potassium permanganate (KMnO4); potassium persulfate (K2S2O8).
Origin of per- Latin, combining form of per per, and used as an intensive per.
Per.
Related Words for per by, through, apiece, each, for, to, via Examples from the Web for per Contemporary Examples of per
Bitcoin began 2013 with a roaring price of $770 per unit, and businesses right and left were converting to the ethereal product.
You Were Wrong About Miley & Bitcoin: 2014’s Failed Predictions
Nina Strochlic
December 31, 2014
In 2013, with a similar-size budget but more detainees, the cost worked out to about $2.7 million per detainee.
Fact-Checking the Sunday Shows: Dec 21
PunditFact.com
December 21, 2014
Try 21 times more likely—31 per million as opposed to 1.5 per million for whites.
The NY Police Union’s Vile War with Mayor De Blasio
Michael Tomasky
December 21, 2014
For comparison, inmates at high-security federal prisons cost about $34,000 per year on average, as of 2012.
Fact-Checking the Sunday Shows: Dec 21
PunditFact.com
December 21, 2014
For example, since 2011 it has been adding 30 per cent more capacity per year on flights to Puerto Rico.
Goodbye, Bahamas. Hello, Havana!
Clive Irving
December 18, 2014
Historical Examples of per
The first of these motives is a stream of copious abuse, as in Per.
The Dramatic Values in Plautus
Wilton Wallace Blancke
It is a fortunate grocer who is able to collect 80 per cent.
Woman’s Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 5
Woman’s Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
It gave a residue on ignition amounting only to 1.6 per cent.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 447, July 26, 1884
Various
This would be a sustaining capacity of 48 pounds per horsepower.
W.J. Jackman and Thos. H. Russell
Here we have the equivalent of exactly 24 pounds per horsepower.
W.J. Jackman and Thos. H. Russell
British Dictionary definitions for per per determiner
- for everythree pence per pound
preposition
- (esp in some Latin phrases) by; through
- as per according toas per specifications
- as per usual informal as usual
Word Origin for per C15: from Latin: by, for each PER abbreviation for (in Britain)
- Professional Employment Register
per- prefix
- throughpervade
- throughoutperennial
- away, beyondperfidy
- completely, throughlyperplex
- (intensifier)perfervid
- indicating that a chemical compound contains a high proportion of a specified elementperoxide; perchloride
- indicating that a chemical element is in a higher than usual state of oxidationpermanganate; perchlorate
- (not in technical usage) a variant of peroxy- persulphuric acid
Word Origin for per- from Latin per through Word Origin and History for per prep.
1580s (earlier in various Latin and French phrases), from Latin per “through, during, by means of, on account of, as in,” from PIE root *per- (1) “Base of prepositions and preverbs with the basic meanings of ‘forward,’ ‘through,’ and a wide range of extended senses such as ‘in front of,’ ‘before,’ ‘early,’ ‘first,’ ‘chief,’ ‘toward,’ ‘against,’ ‘near,’ ‘at,’ ‘around'” [Watkins]. Cf. Sanskrit pari- “around, about, through,” pura “before, formerly;” Avestan pairi- “around,” paro “before;” Old Persian pariy; Hittite para- “on, forth;” Greek peri “around, about, near, beyond,” paros “before,” para “from beside, beyond,” pro “before;” Latin pro “before, for, on behalf of, instead of,” porro “forward,” prae “before;” Old English fore (prep.) “before, in front of;” (adv.) “before, previously;” German vor “for;” Old Church Slavonic pra-dedu “great-grandfather;” Russian pere- “through;” Lithuanian per “through;” Old Irish air- Gothic fair-, German ver-, Old English fer-, intensive prefixes.
per-
word-forming element meaning “through, throughout; thoroughly; entirely, utterly,” from Latin preposition per (see per (prep.)).
per in Medicine per- pref.
- Thoroughly; completely; intensely:perfuse.
- Containing an element in its highest oxidation state:perchloric acid.
- Containing a large or the largest possible proportion of an element:peroxide.
- Containing the peroxy group:peracid.