per
1 prep You use per to express rates and ratios. For example, if something costs £50 per year, you must pay £50 each year for it. If a vehicle is travelling at 40 miles per hour, it travels 40 miles each hour.
amount PREP n
Social Security refused to pay her more than £17 per week..., Buses and trains use much less fuel per person than cars.
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per head
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head
2 If something happens as per a particular plan or suggestion, it happens in the way planned or suggested. FORMAL ♦
as per prep-phrase When they reach here they complain that they are not being paid as per the agreement...
pay-per-view
Pay-per-view is a cable or satellite television system in which you have to pay a fee if you want to watch a particular programme. n-uncount oft N n
The match appeared on pay-per-view television.
per annum
A particular amount per annum means that amount each year. adv amount ADV
...a fee of £35 per annum..., Kenya's population is growing at 4.1 per cent per annum.
per capita
The per capita amount of something is the total amount of it in a country or area divided by the number of people in that country or area. adj ADJ n
They have the world's largest per capita income...
Per capita is also an adverb., adv n ADV
Ethiopia has almost the lowest oil consumption per capita in the world...
per cent ( per cent plural ) , percent You use per cent to talk about amounts. For example, if an amount is 10 per cent (10%) of a larger amount, it is equal to 10 hundredths of the larger amount. n-count num N, oft N of n
20 to 40 per cent of the voters are undecided..., We aim to increase sales by 10 per cent...
Per cent is also an adjective., adj ADJ n
There has been a ten per cent increase in the number of new students arriving at polytechnics this year.
Per cent is also an adverb., adv ADV with v
...its prediction that house prices will fall 5 per cent over the year...
per diem
A per diem is an amount of money that someone is given to cover their daily expenses while they are working.
(mainly AM) n-sing oft N n
He received a per diem allowance to cover his travel expenses.
per se
Per se means `by itself' or `in itself', and is used when you are talking about the qualities of one thing considered on its own, rather than in connection with other things. adv
The authors' argument is not with the free market per se but with the western society in which it works...