The term WORD PRECEDING 'CAPITA' is PER, which is a three-letter word. PER is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase PER capita, which literally translates to 'by head' or 'for each person'. It is used to describe a type of calculation that divides a total amount of something among a population. For example, if a city has a population of 10, 000 people and a budget of $100, 000, the PER capita budget would be $10 PER person.