GRE Words with Root "per/pars" (17 words)

About this Root

Core idea: Latin per- means through, thoroughly, or completely. It often intensifies the root. Parsimony relates to sparingness (small “parts”).

How it shows up on the GRE

Think “all the way through”: pervasive (spread through), perfunctory (only through the surface—superficial). Contrast with half measures.

Quick hooks from this list

Perspicacious — mentally penetrating; shrewd.
Pertinacious — holding through; stubbornly persistent.
Parsimony — stinginess; extreme frugality.

peremptory

urgent; imperative; unchallenged; ending debate

perennial

lasting or existing for a long or apparently infinite time; enduring or continually recurring.

perfidious

faithless

perfunctory

(of an action) carried out without real interest, feeling, or effort.

peripatetic

wandering

peripheral

A peripheral device.

perjury

willful FALSE statement unlawful act

permeable

penetrable

pernicious

having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.

perpetrate

carry out or commit (a harmful, illegal, or immoral action).

perpetuate

make (something) continue indefinitely.

perspicacious

shrewd

pertinacious

holding firmly to an opinion or a course of action.

pertinent

relevant or applicable to a particular matter; apposite.

perturb

to disturb

pervasive

(especially of an unwelcome influence or physical effect) spreading widely throughout an area or a group of people.

perverse

stubbornly contrary