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• peri
  peri

  noun

  one of a large group of beautiful, fairylike beings of Persian mythology, represented as descended from fallen angels and excluded from paradise until their penance is accomplished.
• Peri
  Peri

  noun

  Jacopo 1561–1633, Italian composer.
• peri-
  peri-

  a prefix meaning “about” or “around” (perimeter, periscope ), “enclosing” or “surrounding” (pericardium ), and “near” (perigee, perihelion ), appearing in loanwords from Greek (peripeteia ); on this model, used in the formation of compound words (perimorph ).
• peri–
  peri–

  A prefix that means: “around” (as in pericardium,) or “near” (as in perihelion).

peri

¹ American  

[peer-ee] / ˈpɪər i /

noun

Persian Mythology.

• peris
  plural

1. one of a large group of beautiful, fairylike beings of Persian mythology, represented as descended from fallen angels and excluded from paradise until their penance is accomplished.

2. any lovely, graceful person.

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Peri ² American  

[pe-ree] / ˈpɛ ri /

noun

1. Jacopo 1561–1633, Italian composer.

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peri- ³ American  

1. a prefix meaning “about” or “around” (perimeter, periscope ), “enclosing” or “surrounding” (pericardium ), and “near” (perigee, perihelion ), appearing in loanwords from Greek (peripeteia ); on this model, used in the formation of compound words (perimorph ).

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peri- ¹ British  

prefix

1. enclosing, encircling, or around

   pericardium

   pericarp

   perigon

2. near or adjacent

   perihelion

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peri ² British  

/ ˈpɪərɪ /

noun

1. (in Persian folklore) one of a race of beautiful supernatural beings

2. any beautiful fairy-like creature

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peri– Scientific  

1. A prefix that means: “around” (as in pericardium,) or “near” (as in perihelion).

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• peris
  plural

Etymology

Origin of peri¹

1770–80; < Persian perī, variant of parī fairy, Middle Persian parīk, Avestan pairikā witch

Origin of peri-³

< Greek, prefixal use of perí (adv. and preposition)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

peri Peri peri- peris

Free roaming cats also prey on European mantises, which are already under pressure from competition with the invasive newcomers and are declining in many peri urban environments.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026

The South African chain, famous for its peri peri sauce, operates more than 400 restaurants across the UK.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2021

A knock at his dressing room door announced the arrival of his dinner: chicken breasts and fries from Nandos, a popular restaurant chain specializing in peri peri chicken.

From New York Times ● Mar. 20, 2020

But in the end, Anadol’s light show, not the peri, proved the alien intruding on paradise.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2018

Drew advanced over a rug so soft and deep he felt like a peri entering Paradise.

From Whispering Wires by Henry Leverage

“The timing is quite significant just on the back of the India-U.S. trade deal,” said Dinakar Peri, a fellow in the security studies program at Carnegie India, a think tank based in New Delhi.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 17, 2026

Still, “refugees are one of the cleanest and clearest immigrant economic success stories,” said Giovanni Peri, a professor of economics at the University of California, Davis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 10, 2025

“We’ll lose almost a million working-age Americans every year in the next decade just because of aging,” Peri told me.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2025

In her interview, Ms Peri did not explicitly explain what she meant by "political priorities".

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2024

In 1597, their first semi-collaborative attempt at this new form, which they called ‘drama through music’, was a piece called Dafhe, with music by one of their number, Jacopo Peri.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Gwyneth Paltrow, who turns 50 today, staked her menopausal claim years ago with Madame Ovary, a “supplemental protocol” designed to relieve peri- and menopausal symptoms.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2022

According to a recent study, about 27 million members of the American workforce are peri- or fully menopausal.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2022

One of the largest demographics in America is women in their forties to sixties, and by 2020 there will be nearly 60 million peri- and post-menopausal women living in the United States.

From Time ● Apr. 3, 2015

Less common complications are jaundice, peri- and endo-carditis, meningitis, local and general paralyses, cancrum oris, a diffuse cellular inflammation ending in purulent infiltration, and inflammatory swellings of the glands, or buboes.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

The body of man in all partes at cōcord, euery part executing his func- cion & office, florisheth, and in strength prospereth, otherwise The bodie of man without concord of the partes, peri- sheth.

From A booke called the Foundacion of Rhetorike because all other partes of Rhetorike are grounded thereupon, euery parte sette forthe in an Oracion vpon questions, verie profitable to bee knowen and redde by Richard Rainolde

Camouflaged by rainbows, skylarks, fairies, peris, sensitive plants and Epipsychidions, there was no more successful softener than Sapper Shelley.

From Time Magazine Archive

Such words as "blastoderm", "sindoc," "peris," "parasang," "sarcenet," "teazel," "nullah," "cantatrice," "barracan," "sistrum," writhed and hissed in her verses.

From Time Magazine Archive

His demons and peris. collected amber-wood and made a pile, and would have set me on it, when I remembered the word of life which the two peris.

From The Brown Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

If it were not peris, they would certainly have searched him for his diamonds.

From The Lion of Janina The Last Days of the Janissaries by Mór Jókai

In it there are jins, demons, and peris.

From The Brown Fairy Book by Andrew Lang