per
preposition
for each; for every.
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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.
The leak rate increased to about two pounds per day, and engineers identified new suspected leak areas inside the PrK.
From Science Daily • Jun. 8, 2026
"I was on holiday once in Antigua and the ICD picked up what it thought was my heartbeat going at 500 beats per minute, but it was actually the pool pump," Taylor said.
From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026
In the video, he said that SpaceX will “try to” achieve a “roughly annualized rate” of 1 gigawatt per year of AI computing power in space by the end of 2027.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 8, 2026
The company’s stock was down by more than 1% at roughly $302 per share after Apple’s announcements.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026
The glacier moved more than five feet per day while the lava dome was growing.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
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.
