per
preposition
for each; for every.
per
1 American
[pur, per]
/ pɜr, pər /
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.
-
Also according to; in accordance with.
I delivered the box per your instructions.
He managed to monopolize the meeting, per usual.
adverb
per-
2
American
-
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 (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
American
abbreviation
-
percentile.
-
period.
-
person.
Per.
4
American
abbreviation
-
Persia.
-
Persian.
per-
1
British
prefix
-
through
pervade
-
throughout
perennial
-
away, beyond
perfidy
-
completely, throughly
perplex
-
(intensifier)
perfervid
-
indicating that a chemical compound contains a high proportion of a specified element
peroxide
perchloride
-
indicating that a chemical element is in a higher than usual state of oxidation
permanganate
perchlorate
-
(not in technical usage) a variant of peroxy-
persulphuric acid
per
2
British
/ pə, pɜː /
determiner
preposition
-
(esp in some Latin phrases) by; through
-
according to
as per specifications
-
informal as usual
PER
3
British
abbreviation
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.
Etymology
Origin of per1
First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin: “through, by, for, for each”; see for
Origin of per-2
From Latin, combining form of per, and used as an intensive; per
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
On subjective interventions, when the referee has to go the monitor, the Premier League had 0.15 per match and the World Cup stands at 0.17.
From BBC • Jun. 26, 2026
Front-month WTI crude oil futures are 0.6% lower at $71.52 per barrel.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 26, 2026
The home is located in the idyllic spot of Snedens Landing, which is known for its connection to the arts dating to the early 1900s, per the New York Post.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 26, 2026
Qualcomm introduced Dragonfly C1000, a data-center processor that the company says delivers more than twice the performance per watt of competing server chips.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 25, 2026
No scary movie, failed experiment, or broken cell phone came close to the fear now pumping my heart at a hundred thousand beats per minute.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
