# List of acronyms: P

This list contains acronyms, initialisms, and pseudo-blends that begin with the letter P.
For the purposes of this list:
* acronym = an abbreviation pronounced as if it were a word, e.g., SARS = severe acute respiratory syndrome, pronounced to rhyme with cars
* initialism = an abbreviation pronounced wholly or partly using the names of its constituent letters, e.g., CD = compact disc, pronounced cee dee
* pseudo-blend = an abbreviation whose extra or omitted letters mean that it cannot stand as a true acronym, initialism, or portmanteau (a word formed by combining two or more words).
    (a) = acronym, e.g.: SARS – (a) severe acute respiratory syndrome
    (i) = initialism, e.g.: CD – (i) compact disc
    (p) = pseudo-blend, e.g.: UNIFEM – (p) United Nations Development Fund for Women
    (s) = symbol (none of the above, representing and pronounced as something else; for example: MHz – megahertz)
Some terms are spoken as either acronym or initialism, e.g., VoIP, pronounced both as voyp and V-O-I-P.
(Main list of acronyms)

## Contents

* Top
* P0–9 PA PB PC PD PE PF PG PH PI PJ PK PL PM PN PO PP PQ PR PS PT PU PV PW PX PY PZ
* p – (s) pico
* P – (s) Peta – Phosphorus

## P0–9

* P2P – (i) Peer-to-peer (networking)
* P3I or P$^3$I – (i) PrePlanned Product Improvement

## PA

* pa – (s) Punjabi language (ISO 639-1 code)
* pA – (s) picoampere
* Pa
** (s) pascal
** Protactinium
* PA
** (a/i) Pamela Anderson
** (s) Panama (ISO 3166 digram)
** Paraguay (FIPS 10-4 country code)
** (i) Partial Agonist
** (s) Pennsylvania (postal symbol)
** petampere
** (i) PolyAmide (Nylon)
** Prince Albert piercing
** Public Address (vocal amplification system)
** Public Affairs
* PA 6 – (s) Nylon 6 (PolyAmide) (similarly for PA 11, 12, 46, 66, 610)
* PAA – (i) Position Area for Artillery
* PAB – (s) Panamanian balboa (ISO 4217 currency code)
* PABX – (p) Private Automated Branch eXchange (company phone system)
* PAC
** (i) Pan Africanist Congress
** (a) Partial Solar Calibrator
** Patriot Advanced Capabilities
** Political action committee
** (a/i) Primary Auditory Cortex
* PACER – (a) Public Access to Court Electronic Records (U.S. federal courts)
* PACOM – (p) (U.S.) Pacific Command
* PADD
** (a) Personal Access Display Device (as seen in the Star Trek franchise)
** Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts, used for data collection in the U.S. petroleum industry
* PADI – (a) Professional Association of Diving Instructors
* PAEK – (i) PolyArylEtherKetone
* PAFC – (i) Plymouth Argyle Football Club
* PAH – (i) Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
* PAHO – (i) Pan American Health Organization
* PAI
** (i) PolyAmide Imide
** Pre-Approval Inspection (pharma)
* PAK – (s) Pakistan (ISO 3166 trigram)
* Pakistan – (p) Punjab, Afghan states, Kashmir, sIndh, baluchiSTAN
* PAL
** (a) Phase Alternating Line (TV standard)
** (p) Philippine Airlines
* PAM – (a/i) Precision Attack Missile
* Pamida – (p) Patrick, Michael, and David, sons of the department store chain's co-founder Jim Witherspoon
* PAMELA
** (a) Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics
** (a) Pedestrian Accessibility and Movement Environment Laboratory
* pan – (s) Punjabi language (ISO 639-2 code)
* PAN
** (s) Panama (ISO 3166 trigram)
** (a) Partai Amanat Nasional (Indonesian, "National Mandate Party") – Indonesian political party
** Partido Acción Nacional (Spanish, "National Action Party") – political parties in El Salvador, Mexico, and Nicaragua
** Partido de Avanzada Nacional (Spanish, "National Advancement Party") – Guatemalan political party
** Personal area network
** (i) PolyAcryloNitrile
** (a) Programa de Asistencia Nutricional (Spanish, "Nutritional Assistance Program") – U.S. federal program for nutritional needs of poor families in Puerto Rico
* PANS – (a) Pretty Advanced/Awesome Network Services (cf. POTS)
* Pan-STARRS – (p) Panoramic Survey Telescope And Rapid Response System
* PAO
** (i) Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos (Greek: Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, "Pan-Athenian Athletic Club")
** (a/i) Poly Alpha Olefin
** Public Affairs Officer
* PAOK – (i) Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Konstantinoupoliton (Greek Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, "Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolites")
* PAP
** (i) People's Action Party (Singapore)
** (a) Internet slang for Post a Picture
* PAPI – (a) Precision Approach Path Indicator (aviation)
* PAR – (s) Paraguay (IOC and FIFA trigram, but not ISO 3166)
* PARC – (a) Palo Alto Research Center
* PAROS – (a) Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (treaty)
* PARP – (i) (NATO Partnership for Peace) Planning And Review Process
* PARWIG – (a) Power Augmented Ram Wing In Ground (aeroplane wing shape)
* PAS – See entry
* PASA – (i) PolyAmide, Semi-Aromatic (Nylon)
* PASGT – (i) Personnel Armor System, Ground Troops
* PASR – (i) Personnel Accounting and Strength Reporting
* PatD - (s) Panic! at the Disco
* PATH – (a) Port Authority Trans-Hudson
* PAWS
** (a) Phased Array Warning System
** Progressive Animal Welfare Society
* PAYD – (a) Pay As You Drive
* PAYE – (a) Pay As You Earn

## PB

* Pb – (s) Lead (Latin Plumbum)
* PB – (p) PolyButylene
* PBA
** (i) Philippine Basketball Association
** Professional Bowlers Association
* PBB – (p) PolyBrominated Biphenyl
* PBC
** (i) Push Button Connect, a WPS method
** (i) Playback Control, a feature on Video CD and Super Video CD
* PBCK – (i) Problem Between Chair and Keyboard (computer help desk in-joke)
* PBD – (p) PolyButaDiene
* PBDE – (i) PolyBrominated Diphenyl Ether
* PBI – (p) PolyBenzImidazole
* PBIS - Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports
* PBN – (p) PolyButylene Naphthalate
* PBOH – (i) Please Become Old History
* PBR
** (i) Pabst Blue Ribbon (beer brand)
** Professional Bull Riders
* PBS
** (i) Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (Australia)
** Public Broadcasting Service (U.S.)
** Public Broadcasting Services (Malta)
* PBRT - may stand for: Physically Based Raytracing, an open source software rendering system for physically correct image synthesis.
* PBT – (p) PolyButylene Terephthalate
* PBX – (p) Private Branch eXchange (company phone system)

## PC

* pC – (s) picocoulomb
* PC
** (s) petacoulomb
** U.S. Pacific Islands Trust Territory (ISO 3166 digram; obsolete 1986)
** (i) Personal computer
** Player Character (roleplaying)
** Politically Correct / Political Correctness
** post cibum (Latin, "after meals")
* PCAS – (i) Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey
* PCB – see entry
* PCC
** (i) NATO Partnership Coordination Cell
** Posterior Cingulate Cortex
** Pre-Command Course
** Presidents Conference Committee
* PCCB – (i) Porsche Ceramic Composite Brake
* PCCIP – (i) President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection
* PCE – (p) PerChlorEthylene
* PCI
** (s) U.S. Pacific Islands Trust Territory (ISO 3166 trigram; obsolete 1986)
** (i) Peripheral Component Interconnect (computer bus)
* PCIe – (i) Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (computer bus)
* PCL – (i) Passive Coherent Location
* PCMCIA – (i) Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (People Can't Memorise Computer-Industry Acronyms)
* PCN – (s) Pitcairn Islands (ISO 3166 trigram)
* PCP
** (p) phencyclidine
** Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (formerly Pneumocystis carinii)
** (i) Probabilistically Checkable Proof
* PCPI – Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (AMA)
* PCR – (i) Polymerase chain reaction
* PCSSD - (p) Pulaski County Special School District
* PCT
** (i) Pacific Crest Trail
** Patent Cooperation Treaty
* PCTE
** (i) Portable Common Tool Environment
** (i) Punjab College of Technical Education
* PCZ – (s) Panama Canal Zone (ISO 3166 trigram; obsolete 1980)

## PD

* Pd – (s) Palladium
* PD
** (i) per diem (Latin: (calculated) by the day)
** Point of Departure
** Police Department
** Postal District
** Potential Difference
** Principal Deputy
** Privatdozent
** Public domain
* PD – (i) Product Director—Example: CERDEC Product Director C4ISR and Network Modernization
* PDA
** (i) Personal Digital Assistant
** Predicted Drift Angle
** Public Display of Affection
** Push-Down Automaton
* PDD
** (i) Past Due Date
** Presidential Decision Directive
* PDF
** (i) Panama[nian] Defense Forces (abolished 1990)
** Portable Document Format
** Principal Direction of Fire
* PDG
** (i) President Director General
** Product Development Group
* PDL
** (i) Premier Development League, a former name of the U.S. minor soccer league now known as USL League Two
** Pure Dumb Luck (Texan punk band)
* PDN – (i) Pull-Down Network
* PDP
** (i) Programmable Data Processor
** Performance Development Plan
* PDQ
** (i) Pre-Defined Queries (Siebel packages)
** Pretty Damn Quick
* PDRY – (i) People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (obsolete since 1990)
* PDT – (i) Pacific Daylight [Saving] Time (UTC-7 hours)
* PDU
** (i) Police Dog Unit
** Power Distribution Unit
** Protocol Data Unit
* PDVSA – (a/i) Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (Spanish, "Venezuelan Petroleum Company")

## PE

* PE – Professional Engineer
* PE – (s) Ice Pellets (old style METAR Code) – Peru (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram) – (i) Physical Education – Premature Ejaculation – (s) Prince Edward Island (postal code) – Price to Earning ratio (used for equity shares) – Plant Extract
* PEBCAC – (a) Problem Exists Between Chair and Computer (IT help desk in-joke)
* PEBKAC – (a) Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair (ditto)
* PEEK – (i) PolyEtherEtherKetone
* PEET – (a) Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy
* PEGIDA – (a) Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes (German, "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West")
* PEI – (i) Prince Edward Island – PolyEtherImide
* PEK – (i) PolyEtherKetone
* PEMDAS - The order of operations in math (Parentheses, Exponents, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction)
* PEN
** (s) Peruvian sol (ISO 4217 currency code)
** (i) Poets, Essayists and Novelists, the original meaning of the initialism of the organization now known as PEN International
** PolyEthylene Naphthalate
* PEO – (i) Παγκύπρια Εργατική Ομοσπονδία (Greek for "Pancyprian Federation of Labour") – Philanthropic Educational Organization – PolyEthylene Oxide – Professional Employer Organization – Professional Engineers Ontario
* PEPFAR – (a) President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief
* PER – (s) Peru (ISO 3166 trigram)
* perl – (a) usually lower case Practical Extraction and Report Language
* PERM - Program Electronic Review Management
* PES – (i) PolyEtherSulfone
* PEST – (a) UK Public Engagement with Science and Technology
* PET – (a/i) Personal Electronic Transactor – Pierre Elliott Trudeau – Positron Emission Tomography (as in PET scan) – PolyEthylene Terephthalate (plastic) – (a) Preliminary English Test
* PETA – (a/i) pentaerythritol triacrylate – People Eating Tasty Animals – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
* PETE – (i) PolyEthyleneTErephthalate
* PETP – (i) PolyEthyleneTerePhthalate

## PF

* pF – (s) picofarad
* PF
** (s) French Polynesia (ISO 3166 digram)
** petafarad
** (i) Phenol Formaldehyde (resin)
** Power forward, a player position in Australian rules football, basketball, and ice hockey
* PFD – (i) Permanent Fund Dividend = personal flotation device
* PFE – (i) Permanent Forest Estate
* PFLAG – (p) Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays ("pee-flag")
* PFIY – (a) Please Fix it Yourself ("pee-fiy")
* PFO – (i) Pissed, Fell Over (medical diagnosis in-joke)
* PfP – (i) Partnership for Peace
* PFW
** (i) Pro Football Weekly (magazine and website covering the National Football League)
** Purdue University Fort Wayne

## PG

* pg – (s) picogram
* Pg – (s) petagram
* PG –
** (i) propylene glycol
** (s) Papua New Guinea (ISO 3166 digram)
** (i) Parental Guidance (movie rating)
** Point guard (basketball position)
* PG-13 (disambiguation) – (p) (movie rating)
* PGCE – (p) Postgraduate Certificate in Education
* PGD – (i) Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis
* PG&E – (i) Pacific Gas & Electric
* PGENI – (i) Pharmaco-Genetics for Every Nation Initiative
* PGH – (i) Pre-implantation Genetic Haplotyping
* PGK – (s) Papua New Guinea kina (ISO 4217 currency code)
* PGM – (i) Precision-Guided Munition
* PGP – (i) Pretty Good Privacy

## PH

* pH
** (s) parts of hydrogen (acidity/alkalinity index)
** picohenry
* PH
** (i) Passive Homing (missile guidance system)
** (s) petahenry
** Philippines (ISO 3166 digram)
** (i) Probability of Hit
** Professional hunter (abbreviation used mostly in East and Southern Africa)
** Public Health
** Purple Heart
** (i) Pakatan Harapan (Malaysia)
* PHA
** (p) PolyHydroxyAlkanoate
** (i) Potentially hazardous asteroid
* Ph.D. – (p) Philosophiæ Doctor (Latin, "Doctor of Philosophy")
* PHEV – (i) Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle
* PHF
** (i) Paired helical filaments (aggregations of tau proteins in the human brain associated with tauopathy)
** Potentially Hazardous Food
** Premier Hockey Federation (defunct North American women's ice hockey league)
* PHL – (s) Philippines (ISO 3166 trigram)
* PHQ - Patient Health Questionnaire
* PHP
** (s) Philippine peso (ISO 4217 currency code)
** (i) PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (originally Personal Home Page (Tools))

## PI

* pi – (s) Pāli language (ISO 639-1 code)
* Pi – (s) Pebi
* PI – (i) PolyImide – PolyIsoprene – Private Investigator
* PIB – (i) PolyIsoButylene
* PIC – (i) Person In Charge
* PICNIC – (a) Problem In Chair Not In Computer
* PICS – (i) Private Investment Capital Subscription
* PID – (i) Pelvic Inflammatory Disease – (p) Plan Identification Number – Positive Identification – Procedural Identification – (i) Procurement Identification Description
* PIDOOMA – (a/i) Pulled It Directly Out Of My Ass
* PIF – (a/i) Partners in Flight
* PIG – (a) Pipeline Inspection Gauge
* PIGS (also PIIGS or PIIGGS) – (a) Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain; PIIGS if including Ireland; PIIGGS if including the United Kingdom (Great Britain)
* PIGS – Passenger Inert Guidance Systems – Movable tape barrier, typically used on airport aprons to guide passengers to/from their aircraft avoiding danger areas.
* PIM – (a/i) Parameterized Ionospheric Model – Path of Intended Motion – Pediatric Index of Mortality – Personal Information Manager/Management – Presence and Interworking Mobility – Processor-In-Memory – Program Integration Manager – Protocol Independent Multicast
* PIN – (a) Personal Identification Number
* PINF – (i) People In Need Foundation (Czech charitable organisation)
* PIPA – (a/i) Program on International Policy Attitudes
* PIR – (i) Priority Intelligence Requirement
* PIRA – (a) Provisional Irish Republican Army
* PIREPS – (p) Pilot Reports
* PITA – (a) Pain In The Ass
* P.I. - Philippines Islands
* PITS - Person In The Seat. A common problem as to why a computer is not working properly. It is a PITS issue.

## PJ

* pJ – (s) picojoule
* PJ – (s) petajoule
* PJHQ – (p) Permanent Joint Headquarters
* PJs – (p) Pajamas ("pee-jayz")

## PK

* K – (s) picokelvin
* PK – (s) Pakistan (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram) – petakelvin – (i) Player Kill[er] – Probability of Kill – (p) PolyKetone – (i) Pulemet Kalashnikova (Russian ПК пулемет Калашникова, "Machinegun Kalashnikov")
* PKA – (i) previously known as – professionally known as
* PKE – (i) Partnership of Kindermusik Educators
* PKI – (i) public key infrastructure (cryptography)
* PKM – (i) Pulemet Kalashnikova Modernizirovanniy (Russian ПКМ пулемет Калашникова модернизированный, "Machinegun Kalashnikov Modernised")
* PKMS – (i) Pulemet Kalashnikova Modernizirovanniy Stepanova (Russian ПКМС пулемет Калашникова модернизированный Степанова, "Machinegun Kalashnikov Modernised Stepanova")
* PKMT – (i) Pulemet Kalashnikova Modernizirovanniy Tankoviy (Russian ПКМТ пулемет Калашникова модернизированный танковый, "Machinegun Kalashnikov Modernised Tank") (a.k.a. PKTM)
* PKR
** (s) Pakistani rupee (ISO 4217 currency code)
** (i) People's Justice Party (Malaysia)
* PKT – (i) Pulemet Kalashnikova Tankoviy (Russian ПКТ пулемет Калашникова танковый, "Machinegun Kalashnikov Tank")
* PKTM – (i) Pulemet Kalashnikova Tankoviy Modernizirovanniy (Russian ПКТМ пулемет Калашникова танковый модернизированный, "Machinegun Kalashnikov Tank Modernised") (a.k.a. PKMT)
* PKU – (p) Phenylketonuria

## PL

* pl – (s) Polish language (ISO 639-1 code)
* pL – (s) picolitre
* PL
** (s) Ice Pellets (new style METAR Code)
** (s) petalitre
** (i) Phase Line (Co-ordination Line)
** (s) Poland (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram)
* PLA
** (i) People's Liberation Army (Chinese military forces)
** Programmable logic array
* PLAF
** (a/i) People's Liberation Armed Forces
** Pluggable look and feel
** Product Line Architecture Framework
* PLAID – (p) Precision Location and Identification
* PLB – (i) Personal Locator Beacon
* PLC – (i) Public Limited Company (British)
* PLCC – (i) Plastic Leaded Chip Carrier (electronics)
* PLD – (i) Probable Line of Deployment
* PLEBS – (i) People Lacking Everyday Basic Skills
* PLF – (i) Parachute Landing Fall
* PLGR – (a) Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver ("plugger")
* pli – (s) Pāli language (ISO 639-2 code)
* PLI
** (i) Position Location Information
** Practising Law Institute
** Private Lands Initiative
** Professional Liability Insurance
* PLIF – (a) Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence
* PLK – (i) Polska Liga Koszykówki (Polish, "Polish Basketball League")
* PLKK – (i) Polska Liga Koszykówki Kobiet (Polish, "Polish Women's Basketball League"), former name of the league now known as Basket Liga Kobiet
* PLL
** (i) Phase-Locked Loop (electronics)
** Premier Lacrosse League
* PLM – (i) Polarized Light Microscope/Microscopy
* PLMBA - (i) Phospholipid Bilayer Microarray
* Pln – (p) Platoon
* PLN – (s) Polish zloty (ISO 4217 currency code)
* PLO – (i) Palestine Liberation Organization
* PLOKTA – (a) Press Lots Of Keys To Abort
* PLP – (i) Platonic Life Partner
* PLS
** (i) Palletized Loading System
** Personal Locator System
* PLUTO – (a) Pipe Line Under The Ocean
* PLW – (s) Palau (ISO 3166 trigram)

## PM

* pm – (s) picometre
* Pm – (s) petametre – Promethium
* PM – (s) Panama (FIPS 10-4 country code) – (i) Perry Mason – Phase Modulation – Post Meridiem (Latin "after noon") – Prime Minister – Project Manager – (s) Saint Pierre and Miquelon (ISO 3166 digram)
* PMC – (i) Primary Motor Cortex
* PMCS – (i) Partial Mission Capable Supply (SM&R code) – Power Management Control System – Professional Military Comptroller School
* PME – (i) Professional Military Education
* PMHT – (i) Pardon My Hashtag (Also #PMHT)
* PMI – (i) Positive Material Identification
* PMID – (p) PubMed Identifier
* PMMA – (i) PolyMethylMethAcrylate
* PMO — Principal Medical Officer (UK, Canada, India, and Ireland)
* PMOS – (i/a) P-type/Positive Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor transistor ("pee-moss")
* PMS – (i) Premenstrual Syndrome
* PMSC – (i) NATO Political-Military Steering Committee on Partnership for Peace
* PMSL – (i) Piss Myself Laughing (Internet shorthand)
* PMT - Premenstrual Tension (UK) (see Premenstrual Syndrome)

## PN

* pN – (s) piconewton
* PN
** (s) petanewton
** Pitcairn Islands (ISO 3166 diagram)
** (i) Perikatan Nasional (Malaysia)
* PNAC – (i) Project for the New American Century
* PNC
** (i) Palestinian National Council
** Palmerston North City (cf. PNC, a New Zealand rapper from this city)
** Parti nationaliste chrétien, defunct Quebec political party
** Pittsburgh National Corporation, one of the two companies that merged into today's PNC Financial Services
** Provident National Corporation, the other company that merged into PNC Financial Services
* PNF – (i) Pilot Not Flying (aviation)
* PNG
** (s) Papua New Guinea (ISO 3166 trigram)
** (i) Portable Network Graphics
* PNP
** Parti national populaire, defunct Quebec political party
** (i) Partido Nuevo Progresista
** Plug 'N' Play/Pray
** Positive Negative Positive
* PNS – (s) Pensacola, Florida (IATA airport code)
* PNVS – (i) Pilot Night Vision Sensor
* PNH
** (i) Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria
** Police Nationale d'Haïti (French, "National Police of Haiti")

## PO

* Po – (s) Polonium
* PO
** (s) Dust Devil (METAR Code)
** (i) per os (Latin, "by mouth")
** (s) Portugal (FIPS 10-4 country code)
* PO – (i) Post Office
* PO – (i) Purchase Order
* POCD – (i) Post-Operative Cognitive Dysfunction
* pod – (a) Plain Old Documentation
* POD
** (i) Payable on Death (banking term, and the full name of American metal band P.O.D.)
** Point of divergence (alternate or counterfactual history)
** Port of Debarkation
* POE – (a) Perl Object Environment – (b) Port Of Embarkation (c) Polyol Ester (d) Power Over Ethernet
* POETS – (a) Portable Occultation, Eclipse, and Transit electronic-camera System
* POFF – (a) Plain Old Flat File
* POG – (a) Passionfruit, Orange and Guava
* POGO – (a) Project On Government Oversight
* POI
** (i) Program Of Instruction
** (i) Place of Interest
** (i) Point of Interest
** (i) Person of Interest
* POK – (a/i) Plane Of Knowledge
* pol – (s) Polish language (ISO 639-2 code)
* POL
** (i) Petroleum, Oils and Lubricants
** (s) Poland (ISO 3166 trigram)
* POLAD – (p) Political Advice
* POM
** (i) Program Objective Memorandum
** PolyOxyMethylene
* POMDP – (i) Partially observable Markov decision process
* POP
** (a/i) Point of Presence
** Post Office Protocol
** Progesterone Only Pill
* por – (s) Portuguese language (ISO 639-2 code)
* POR
** (s) Portugal (FIFA and IOC trigram, but not ISO 3166)
** (i) Proposed Operational Requirement
* POS
** (a/i) Point Of Sale terminal (retail industry transaction computers)
** (i) Piece Of Shit
** Position
* POSH – (a) Port Outbound Starboard Home (alleged)
* POTC o PotC – (a) Pirates of the Caribbean
* POSSLQ – Person of the Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters
* POT – (a/i) Plane Of Tranquility
* POTS
** (a) Plain Old Telephone Service (cf. PANS)
** Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome
* POV – (i) Point of view / Point of vision
* POW – (i) Prisoner of war

## PP

* pp
** pages, especially in references, e.g. "A. U. Thor, Title, Journal X, Vol. 1, no. 2 (2010) pp. 13-42."
* PP
** (s) Papua New Guinea (FIPS 10-4 country code)
** (i) Passage Point
** per procurationem (Latin, "by proxy")
* PPA
** (i) Parahippocampal Place Area
** PolyPhthalAmide
* PPASC – (i) (U.S.) Plans and Program Analysis Support Center
* PPASSCCATAG - (a) "Proud Parents Against Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples And Teens And Gays", a fictional group formed by Marge Simpson
* PPCLI – (i) Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (regiment)
* PPG
** (i) Pittsburgh Plate Glass (the original name of the company now known as PPG Industries)
** The Powerpuff Girls
* PPL
** (i) Pakistan Petroleum Limited
** Pay per lead (marketing)
** Pennsylvania Power & Light, former name of the U.S. utility company now known as PPL
** Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen Liechtensteins (German, "Scouts and Guides of Liechtenstein")
** Phonographic Performance Limited (UK performing rights organisation)
* PPLI – (i) Precise Participant Location & Identification
* ppm – (i) Parts Per Million
* PPM – (i) Project Planning and Management
* PPO – (i) PolyPhenylene Oxide
* PPP
** (i) Point-to-Point Protocol
** Purchasing Power Parity
* PPQ – (i) Pulses Per Quarter (used in music programming, sequencers)
* PPQN – (i) Pulses Per Quarter Note (ditto)
* PPQT – (i) Pre-Production Qualification Test
* PPS
** (i) post postscriptum
** Precise/Precision Positioning Service (GPS)
** PolyPhenylene Sulfide
* PPV – (a) Pay-per-view

## PQ

* PQ
** (s) Province of Québec (obsolete postal code, replaced by QC)
** (i) Parti Québécois

## PR

* Pr – (i) Pastor or Priest
* Pr – (s) Praseodymium
* PR
** (i) Public Relations
** (s) Puerto Rico (postal symbol; ISO 3166 digram)
* Prb – (i) Presbyter
* PRBO – (i) Point Reyes Bird Observatory
* PRC – (i) People's Republic of China
* PRD – (i) CERDEC Product Realization Directorate
* PRFG – (s) Partial Fog (METAR Code)
* PRI – (s) Puerto Rico (ISO 3166 trigram)
* Prinair - Puerto Rico International Airlines
* PRK – (s) Democratic People's Republic of Korea (ISO 3166 trigram)
* PRM – (i) Personnel Readiness Management
* PRN – (i) pro re nata (Latin, "for the emergency", "as needed")
* PRT
** (s) Portugal (ISO 3166 trigram)
** (i) Provincial Reconstruction Team
* PRY – (s) Paraguay (ISO 3166 trigram)

## PS

* ps
** (s) Pashto language (ISO 639-1 code)
** picosecond
* pS – (s) picosiemens
* Ps – (s) petasecond
* PS
** (s) Palestinian Territory, Occupied (ISO 3166 digram)
** (i) Personnel Services
** (s) petasiemens
** (i) post scriptum (Latin, "written after")
** Power Steering
** Power Supply
** Public School
* PooS – Poo Sniffer (Internet shorthand)
* PSA
** Pacific Southwest Airlines
** (i) Paralysis Society of America
** Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
** Pressure-Sensitive Adhesive
** Production Services Association
** Prostate Specific Antigen
** Public Service Announcement
** Public Service Association
* PSC
** (i) Personal service corporation
** Primary Somatosensory Cortex
* PSE
** (s) Palestinian Territory, Occupied (ISO 3166 trigram)
** (i) Precision Shooting Equipment, the expanded name of PSE Archery
* PSG
** (i) Pacific Seabird Group
** Paris Saint-Germain
* PSI - (i) Pounds per square inch
* PSI – (a/i) Portable Source Initiative
* PSO
** (i) Peace Support Operations
** Primary Standardisation Office (ABCA)
** Protocol Supporting Organization (of the ICANN)
* PSS – (i) Personnel System Support
* PST – (i) Pacific Standard Time (UTC−8 hours)
* PSU – (i) Pennsylvania State University
* PSV
** (i) Philips Sport Vereniging (Dutch for "Philips Sports Union")
** Public Service Vehicle
* PsyOp – (p) Psychological Operations

## PT

* pt – (s) Portuguese language (ISO 639-1 code)
* pT – (s) picotesla
* Pt – (s) Platinum
* PT – (s) petatesla – (i) Physical Training (in the Army) – (s) Portugal (ISO 3166 digram)
* PTA – (i) Parent-Teacher Association
* PTAL – (i) Public Transport Accessibility Level
* PTAN –
** (i) Precision Terrain Aided Navigation
** (a) (pronounced P-tan) Provider Transaction Access Number
* PTCAS - Physical Therapy Centralized Application System
* PTES - (i) People's Trust for Endangered Species
* PTFE – (i) PolyTetraFluoroEthylene
* PTI – (i) Pardon the Interruption
* PTL – (p) Patrol – (i) Primary Target Line
* PTO – (i) Patent and Trademark Office – (i) please turn over (written at the bottom of a double-sided page)
* PTSD – (i) Posttraumatic stress disorder
* PTUI – (a/i) Plain-Text User Interface ("pa-too-ey") (cf CLI)

## PU

* Pu – (s) Plutonium
* PU
** (s) Guinea-Bissau (FIPS 10-4 country code)
** (i) Polyurethane
** (s) United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands (ISO 3166 digram; obsolete 1986)
* Pub – (p) Publication
* PUG – (a/i) PET Users Group
* PUN – (a/i) Pull-Up Network
* PUP – (a/i) Pull-Up Point
* PUR – (s) Puerto Rico (IOC and FIFA trigram, but not ISO 3166)
* pus – (s) Pashto language (ISO 639-2 code)
* PUS – (s) United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands (ISO 3166 trigram; obsolete 1986)

## PV

* pV – (s) picovolt
* PV – (s) petavolt
* PVC
** (i) Permanent Virtual Circuit
** PolyVinyl Chloride
** Premature Ventricular Contraction
** Primary Visual Cortex
* PvE – (i) Player versus Environment
* PvP – (i) Player versus Player
* PVR – (i) Personal Video Recorder
* PvZ – (i) Plants vs. Zombies

## PW

* pW – (s) picowatt
* PW
** (s) Palau (postal symbol; ISO 3166 digram)
** petawatt
* PWA – (i) Pirates With Attitude
* PWBA – (p) Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration
* PwC – (i) PricewaterhouseCoopers (international accounting firm)
* PWC – (i) PieceWise Constant (describing a mathematical function)
* PWHL
** (i) Professional Women's Hockey League, a North American women's ice hockey league
** Provincial Women's Hockey League, a junior ice hockey league operating in the Canadian province of Ontario
* PWL – (i) PieceWise Linear (describing a mathematical function)
* PWLC – (i) PieceWise Linear and Concave/Convex (describing a mathematical function)
* PWM - (i) Pulse-width Modulation
* PWP – (i) Plot, What Plot? / Porn Without Plot (denotes plotless, um, "feel-good" stories in online fiction, especially fanfic or erotic fiction)
* PWR – (i) Pressurized Water Reactor
* PWV – (i) Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging, the original name for the South African province now known as Gauteng, and still used to refer to the metropolitan agglomeration at the core of the province

## PX

* PX – (p) Post eXchange

## PY

* PY – (s) Paraguay (ISO 3166 digram) – Person-Year – (i) Portsmouth yardstick
* PYF – (s) French Polynesia (ISO 3166 trigram)
* PYG – (s) Paraguayan guaraní (ISO 4217 currency code)
* PYMWYMI – (a) Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

## PZ

* PZ – (s) Panama Canal Zone (ISO 3166 digram; obsolete 1980) – (i) Pickup Zone