per

[pur; unstressed per] /pɜr; unstressed pər/
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.
according to; in accordance with:
I delivered the box per your instructions.
adverb
4.
Informal. each; for each one:
The charge for window-washing was five dollars per.
Origin
1580-90; < Latin: through, by, for, for each. See for
Can be confused
per, purr (see usage note at the current entry)
Usage note
Per for 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.

per-

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 O 5), permanganic (HMnO 4), persulfuric (H 2 S 2 O 8), acids; potassium permanganate (KMnO 4); potassium persulfate (K 2 S 2 O 8).
Origin
< Latin, combining form of per per, and used as an intensive

Per.

1.
Persia.
2.
Persian.

per.

1.
percentile.
2.
period.
3.
person.
Examples from the web for per
  • The system prints about thirty characters per second, which means it takes less than a minute per double-spaced page.
  • Selling past copies of examination papers-a few cents per student per exam.
  • Oxygen costs and requirements vary per climb and per climber.
  • Water levels are falling at an average rate of three feet per year.
  • From that plot, it seems that price per piece is fairly consistent.
  • In many of these cases, individual beaches may be losing only a few inches per year, but in some cases the problem is much worse.
  • Density--the number of knots per inch--is less important to the quality of a wool-on-wool carpet.
  • And the number of posts per day fluctuates, but doesn't seem to have been rising on average over the last couple of weeks.
  • It has the potential to produce far more fuel per acre than any other source.
  • The bottom of the sea is cold, dark and under pressures of tons per square inch.
British Dictionary definitions for per

per

/pɜː; unstressed pə/
determiner
1.
for every: three pence per pound
preposition
2.
(esp in some Latin phrases) by; through
3.
as per, according to: as per specifications
4.
(informal) as per usual, as usual
Word Origin
C15: from Latin: by, for each

PER

abbreviation (in Britain)
1.
Professional Employment Register

per-

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
Word Origin
from Latin per through
Word Origin and History for per
prep.

1580s (earlier in various Latin and French phrases), from Latin per "through, during, by means of, on account of, as in," from PIE root *per- (1) "Base of prepositions and preverbs with the basic meanings of 'forward,' 'through,' and a wide range of extended senses such as 'in front of,' 'before,' 'early,' 'first,' 'chief,' 'toward,' 'against,' 'near,' 'at,' 'around'" [Watkins]. Cf. Sanskrit pari- "around, about, through," pura "before, formerly;" Avestan pairi- "around," paro "before;" Old Persian pariy; Hittite para- "on, forth;" Greek peri "around, about, near, beyond," paros "before," para "from beside, beyond," pro "before;" Latin pro "before, for, on behalf of, instead of," porro "forward," prae "before;" Old English fore (prep.) "before, in front of;" (adv.) "before, previously;" German vor "for;" Old Church Slavonic pra-dedu "great-grandfather;" Russian pere- "through;" Lithuanian per "through;" Old Irish air- Gothic fair-, German ver-, Old English fer-, intensive prefixes.

per-

word-forming element meaning "through, throughout; thoroughly; entirely, utterly," from Latin preposition per (see per (prep.)).

per in Medicine

per- pref.

  1. Thoroughly; completely; intensely: perfuse.

  2. Containing an element in its highest oxidation state: perchloric acid.

  3. Containing a large or the largest possible proportion of an element: peroxide.

  4. Containing the peroxy group: peracid.

per in Technology


1. Packed Encoding Rules.
2. partial equivalence relation.
(1998-05-27)

Related Abbreviations for per

PER

Perseus (constellation)

per.

  1. period
  2. person

Per.

Persian