What does it mean to say that a perfectly competitive firm is a price

What does it mean to say that a perfectly competitive firm is a price taker? Can’t a firm set any price it chooses?

What will be an ideal response?

ANSWER

A firm can set any price it chooses, but in a perfectly competitive industry, it will do no good to choose anything but the market price. At a higher price, no one will buy (since products are assumed to be identical) and at a lower price, you lose revenue without gaining sales, since you can presumably sell all you want to at the market price. Thus the firm is said to be a price taker.