1.adjectivePositing itself and being a principle of its own determination.
2.adverbIn and of itself; by itself; without determination by or involvement of extraneous factors.
"Some people say that a hangover is caused by impurities in the drink, not by the alcohol per se."
3.adverb(chiefly in negative polarity environments) In a true or literal sense; as one would expect from the name or description.
"It's not a museum per se, but they do have some interesting artefacts."
4.adverbBeing a thing that posits itself and is a principle of its own determination.
5.adverbNot leaving discretion to the judge to take into account additional factors that could rebut the judgment, deriving the qualification from the statute.