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Home / What Does the Root Word Per Mean

What Does the Root Word Per Mean

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per

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.

according to; in accordance with: I delivered the box per your instructions.

adverb

Informal. each; for each one: The charge for window-washing was five dollars per.

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Origin of per

1580–90; <Latin: through, by, for, for each. See for

usage note for per

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.

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH per

per , purr (see usage note at the current entry)

Other definitions for per (2 of 4)

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 (H2C2O5), permanganic (HMnO4), persulfuric (H2S2O8), acids; potassium permanganate (KMnO4); potassium persulfate (K2S2O8).

Origin of per-

From Latin, combining form of per, and used as an intensive; per

Other definitions for per (3 of 4)

abbreviation

percentile.

period.

person.

Other definitions for per (4 of 4)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

Words related to per

How to use per in a sentence

  • Added to drinking water at concentrations of around one part per million, fluoride ions stick to dental plaque.

  • During an emergency that ratio could be allowed to drop to 8.5 people per orbit.

  • Well over a thousand holes in, I average less than four strokes per hole.

  • At least one child in CAR has been killed or gravely injured per day, and 10,000 have been recruited into militant groups.

  • Bitcoin began 2013 with a roaring price of $770 per unit, and businesses right and left were converting to the ethereal product.

  • I doubt that thirty persons per day are carried into or brought out of it by all public conveyances whatever.

  • The Act permits member banks to accept an amount of bills not exceeding 50 per cent.

  • At this period it brought enormous prices, the finest selling at from fifteen to eighteen shillings per pound.

  • In 1205 wheat was worth 12 pence per bushel, which was cheap, as there had been some years of famine previous thereto.

  • We did not talk much about the past at dinner, except—ah me, how bitterly we regretted our 10 per cent.

British Dictionary definitions for per (1 of 3)

determiner

for every three pence per pound

preposition

(esp in some Latin phrases) by; through

as per according to as per specifications

as per usual informal as usual

Word Origin for per

C15: from Latin: by, for each

British Dictionary definitions for per (2 of 3)

abbreviation for (in Britain)

Professional Employment Register

British Dictionary definitions for per (3 of 3)

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

Word Origin for per-

from Latin per through

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Medical definitions for per

pref.

Thoroughly; completely; intensely: perfuse.

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

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

Containing the peroxy group: peracid.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

What Does the Root Word Per Mean

Source: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/per-#:~:text=per%2D,Chemistry.