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

"We can at least treat 50 patients per day for chemotherapy and radiation and even more than that. Other hospitals can do a lot of surgeries," the doctor tells me.

Read more on BBC

L.A. has had an average of 58 West Nile infections per year since 2020, with an average of one death per year, according to data from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

I suppose some die-hards might actually have thought that adding “.com” to a company name justified an average 74% rise in the stock over the next week and a half or that it really made sense to value companies by measuring their price per online click.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Every fan now has a casino in their pocket, and the number of bets per game has grown exponentially, putting sports leagues in the same boat as social-media companies trying to root out inappropriate content.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

They said the Childcare Offer for Wales, providing up to 30 hours per week of care for three and four-year-olds, was more generous than England's scheme.

Read more on BBC