Word.ws English Dictionary

per-

per- prefix: in verbs: denoting the sense "through", as in perforate.

Prefix (1)

per-

  1. (idiomatic) In verbs: denoting the sense "through", as in perforate.
    Synonyms:
    trans-, para-, dia-
  2. (idiomatic) In verbs: denoting the sense "thoroughly", as in perfect.
    Synonyms:
    para-
  3. (idiomatic) In verbs: denoting the sense "to destruction", as in pervert.
  4. (idiomatic) In adjectives and adverbs: denoting the sense "extremely", as in perfervid.
  5. Forming nouns and adjectives denoting the maximum proportion of one element in a compound, as in peroxide.
  6. Added to the name of an element in a polyatomic ion to denote the number of atoms of that element (usually four).

Prefix (2)

per-

  1. (idiomatic) Denoting the sense "by" or "per", as in perchance or perhaps.

Synonyms of per-

Origin of per-

Borrowed from Latin per and per-.

Inherited from Middle English per-.

Questions about per-

What does per- mean?
Per- means in verbs: denoting the sense "through", as in perforate.
What part of speech is per-?
Per- is a prefix.

Words near per- in the dictionary

  1. per stirpes
  2. per usual
  3. per vagina
  4. per vaginam
  5. per'lous
  6. per-
  7. per-cent
  8. per-centage
  9. per-centages
  10. per-rectal
  11. per.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: per- (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-per-.wav.

Cite this entry: “per-.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/per-. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.