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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

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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)

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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 restaurant group has had to shut around 50 outlets temporarily after apparently running short of its staple fare: peri peri chicken.

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

There is evidence in the Hippocratic treatise peri sarkwn of an attempt to apply this doctrine to the human body.

From The Evolution of Modern Medicine A Series of Lectures Delivered at Yale University on the Silliman Foundation in April, 1913 by William Osler

“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

“Entertainment collaborations are one way to break through all the noise,” said Peri Edelstein, who leads Boston Consulting Group’s North America consumer practice.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026

“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

If the policies are sustained, they could have far-reaching economic consequences, Prof Peri adds.

From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2025

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

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

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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

Then came the bridal retinue with the bridal gifts, a hundred camels laden with flowers and fruits, and an elephant bearing gold and precious stones and veils meet for the land of the peris.

From Halil the Pedlar A Tale of Old Stambul by Mór Jókai

My next grievance is, that je peris de froid; j'en mis penetre au pied de la lettre, and the reason is plain, but why I did not discover it myself is hardly to be conceived.

From George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life by E. S. Roscoe

Are the peris* come down from their spheres?

From Shorter Novels, Eighteenth Century The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia; The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic Story; Vathek, an Arabian Tale by William Beckford

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