PA
Abbreviation with 16 meanings
| Stands for | Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 16 |
| Categories | Geography & Places, Medical, Government & Politics, Units & Measurements, Business & Finance, Writing & Everyday, Arts & Entertainment, Sports, Science & Engineering |
| Also written | p.a., Pa |
PA has 16 meanings. The most common are Pennsylvania (US state) and Physician assistant (healthcare credential); it can also stand for Posteroanterior, Prior authorization, Palestinian Authority, Pascal and Personal assistant, plus 9 more listed below.
Meanings of PA at a glance
| # | PA stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pennsylvania | Geography & Places › US State |
| 2 | Physician assistant | Medical › Healthcare Credential |
| 3 | Posteroanterior | Medical › Medical Imaging |
| 4 | Prior authorization | Medical › Pharmacy |
| 5 | Palestinian Authority | Government & Politics › World Government |
| 6 | Pascal | Units & Measurements › Engineering Unit |
| 7 | Personal assistant | Business & Finance › Job Title |
| 8 | Per annum (per year) | Writing & Everyday › Latin |
| 9 | Public address system | Arts & Entertainment › Music |
| 10 | Primary aldosteronism | Medical › Endocrinology & Diabetes |
| 11 | Panama | Geography & Places › Country Code |
| 12 | Professional association | Business & Finance › Company Type |
| 13 | Plate appearances | Sports › Baseball |
| 14 | Play-action | Sports › American Football |
| 15 | Production assistant | Arts & Entertainment › Film, Television and Theater |
| 16 | Protactinium | Science & Engineering › Chemical Element |
1. Pennsylvania
Geography & Places · US State Abbreviations
Pennsylvania, officially a commonwealth, ratified the Constitution on December 12, 1787, as the second state. Harrisburg is the capital and Philadelphia the largest city, where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed; the Keystone State name reflects its central place among the 13 colonies.
Example: The cheesesteak shop in Philadelphia, PA ships frozen kits nationwide.
AP style and the Government Publishing Office use Pa.; the longer Penn. and Penna. appear in older documents. PA was introduced in 1963. PA also means physician assistant, public address system and personal assistant, and as an ISO country code it is Panama.
2. Physician assistant
Medical · Healthcare Credential Abbreviations
Licensed clinician who examines, diagnoses and treats patients, orders tests and prescribes medications, working in collaboration with physicians. PAs complete an accredited master's-level program of about 27 months and pass a national exam.
Example: Surgical PA first-assists in the OR and rounds on post-op patients.
The profession began at Duke University in 1965, when Eugene Stead trained former military medics. PA programs are accredited by ARC-PA. Unlike nurse practitioners, PAs are trained in a general medical model and can change specialties without new certification. In other medical contexts PA means pulmonary artery or posteroanterior.
3. Posteroanterior
Medical · Medical Imaging Abbreviations
Radiographic direction in which X-rays pass from the back of the body to the front, with the chest pressed against the detector. The standard upright chest X-ray is a PA view because it keeps the heart close to the detector and shows its size accurately.
Example: PA and lateral CXR ordered to follow up the left lower lobe pneumonia.
Heart size on a PA film is judged by the cardiothoracic ratio, normally below about 0.5. The opposite projection is AP. In charts PA more often means physician assistant, and in cardiology the pulmonary artery, so the word "view" or "film" nearby signals the radiographic sense.
4. Prior authorization
Medical · Pharmacy Abbreviations
Requirement by an insurer or PBM that the prescriber obtain approval before a drug is covered, usually for expensive, specialty or potentially misused medicines. The prescriber submits clinical information showing the drug meets the plan's criteria.
Example: The pharmacy says the GLP-1 needs a PA, so we faxed chart notes and A1c results.
Also called pre-authorization or prior approval. Electronic prior authorization (ePA) built into prescribing software has shortened turnaround. PA is often combined with step therapy, which requires trying cheaper drugs first. Surveys by the American Medical Association report that PA delays care. PA also abbreviates physician assistant.
5. Palestinian Authority
Government & Politics · World Government Abbreviations
Interim self-governing body, also called the Palestinian National Authority, that administers parts of the occupied West Bank under the 1990s Oslo Accords. It lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007.
Example: The PA pays salaries to tens of thousands of public employees in the West Bank.
It was established in 1994 and is based in Ramallah. Its president and legislature were last elected in 2005 and 2006 respectively. It relies heavily on tax revenues collected by Israel and on foreign aid. In US addresses, PA is the postal code for Pennsylvania.
6. Pascal (Pa)
Units & Measurements · Engineering Unit Abbreviations
The SI unit of pressure, one newton per square meter, a tiny amount: standard atmospheric pressure is 101,325 Pa. Engineers mostly use kPa, MPa and hPa, but plain pascals appear in HVAC duct pressures and acoustics.
Example: The filter's pressure drop at rated airflow is 120 Pa.
The unit honors French mathematician Blaise Pascal, whose 1648 Puy de Dome experiment, carried out by his brother-in-law, showed that air pressure falls with altitude. It was adopted under that name in 1971. A pressure of 1 Pa is roughly that of a sheet of paper lying flat on a table.
7. Personal assistant
Business & Finance · Job Title Abbreviations
Assistant who handles an individual's administrative and sometimes personal tasks, such as scheduling, correspondence, travel bookings and errands. In UK and Commonwealth offices, PA is the standard title for an assistant to a senior manager.
Example: Her PA moved the board call to Thursday and rebooked the flights.
In US corporate settings, "executive assistant" is the more common title, and PA in medicine means physician assistant. Public figures and wealthy individuals also employ personal assistants for household and travel matters. In US addresses, PA is the postal code for Pennsylvania.
8. Per annum (per year) (p.a.)
Writing & Everyday · Latin Abbreviations
Expresses a rate or amount per year, most commonly in salaries, interest rates and rents. It is especially frequent in British, Indian and Australian financial writing; American texts usually say "per year" or "annually."
Example: The post offers a starting salary of £34,000 p.a. plus a 10 percent pension contribution.
Read aloud as "per annum" or "a year." Related phrases include per diem (per day) and per mensem (per month), which are normally written out. For interest, "5% p.a." states a nominal rate, and how often the interest compounds determines the effective annual rate. Do not confuse it with PA for a personal assistant or a public address system.
9. Public address system
Arts & Entertainment · Music Abbreviations
System of microphones, mixers, amplifiers and loudspeakers used to amplify sound for an audience, from small club speakers to stadium line arrays. Musicians often call the whole sound system "the PA".
Example: The venue's PA can handle a full band, but bring your own monitors.
Line arrays, vertical stacks of speakers that project sound evenly over long distances, became standard for large concerts in the 1990s. Announcement systems in schools and stations are also PA systems. In film production PA means production assistant.
10. Primary aldosteronism
Medical · Endocrinology & Diabetes Abbreviations
Excess aldosterone production by one or both adrenal glands, independent of renin, causing high blood pressure and sometimes low potassium. It is the most common curable cause of hypertension and is screened for with the aldosterone-to-renin ratio.
Example: Resistant HTN with potassium 3.2; aldosterone-renin ratio high, PA suspected, adrenal vein sampling next.
First described by Jerome Conn in 1955, hence the name Conn syndrome for aldosterone-producing adenomas. It is markedly underdiagnosed, and recent guidelines encourage much broader screening of people with hypertension. Unilateral disease is cured or improved by adrenalectomy; bilateral disease is treated with mineralocorticoid antagonists. PA also means physician assistant and posteroanterior.
11. Panama
Geography & Places · Country Code Abbreviations
Panama, capital Panama City, alpha-3 PAN, is home to the Panama Canal, opened in 1914 and transferred to Panamanian control in 1999. The country uses the US dollar alongside its own balboa.
Example: Ships registered in PA make up one of the largest merchant fleets by tonnage.
Panama's ship registry is the world's largest flag of convenience. In US addresses PA is Pennsylvania.
12. Professional association
Business & Finance · Company Type Abbreviations
Corporate form for licensed professionals, such as physicians, lawyers and accountants, available in certain US states, such as Florida and Texas. It works much like a professional corporation, limiting liability for business debts but not for an individual's own malpractice.
Example: Hernandez & Cole, P.A., Attorneys at Law, handles real estate closings across South Florida.
Written PA or P.A. after the firm name, and in some states interchangeable with P.C. The designation is especially familiar on law-firm and medical-practice signage in Florida. PA more commonly means Pennsylvania, physician assistant or personal assistant.
13. Plate appearances
Sports · Baseball Abbreviations
Every completed turn at bat, including walks, hit-by-pitches, sacrifices and catcher's interference, whereas at-bats exclude those outcomes. Rate statistics such as OBP use plate appearances.
Example: He needs 502 PA to qualify for the batting title.
To qualify for batting titles a player needs 3.1 plate appearances per team game, or 502 in a 162-game season. Pete Rose holds the career record. In live sound and football PA means something else entirely.
14. Play-action
Sports · American Football Abbreviations
Passing play that begins with a fake handoff to draw linebackers and safeties toward the line before the quarterback throws. It is most effective when a team has an established running game.
Example: He completed 10 of 11 PA passes for 180 yards.
Also called a play-action pass or play-action fake. Coaches such as Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan built their offenses around it, and analytics sites track play-action rate and efficiency separately. In music and live events PA means public address system.
15. Production assistant
Arts & Entertainment · Film, Television and Theater Abbreviations
Entry-level crew member on film and TV sets who handles errands, lockups, paperwork, walkie-talkie relays and general support. Many directors and producers started as PAs.
Example: A PA locked up the street so pedestrians would not walk through the shot.
Set PAs work under the assistant directors, while office PAs support the production office. The job is known for long hours and low pay. In live sound PA means public address system.
16. Protactinium (Pa)
Science & Engineering · Chemical Element Abbreviations
Protactinium (element 91) is a rare, toxic and radioactive actinide found in tiny amounts in uranium ores. It has no commercial uses; geologists measure its ratio to thorium in ocean sediments to reconstruct past ocean circulation, and it forms in thorium-fueled reactors on the way to uranium-233.
Example: Sediment cores were analyzed for Pa and thorium isotopes to estimate past Atlantic overturning rates.
Kasimir Fajans and Oswald Helmut Göhring identified a short-lived isotope in 1913 and called it brevium; the longer-lived protactinium-231 was found in 1917-1918 by Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner, and independently by Frederick Soddy and John Cranston. The name means "parent of actinium," because it decays into actinium; IUPAC shortened protoactinium to protactinium in 1949.
Related abbreviations
More US state abbreviations
- NY – New York
- OH – Ohio
- OK – Oklahoma
- OR – Oregon
- RI – Rhode Island
- SC – South Carolina
- SD – South Dakota
- TN – Tennessee
See all 51 US state abbreviations →
More healthcare credential abbreviations
- OT – Occupational therapist
- OTD – Doctor of Occupational Therapy
- OTR – Occupational Therapist, Registered
- OTR/L – Occupational Therapist, Registered, Licensed
- PA-C – Physician Assistant-Certified
- PCA – Patient care assistant
- PCCN – Progressive Care Certified Nurse
- PCT – Patient care technician
See all 122 healthcare credential abbreviations →
This entry is for general education and is not medical advice. Abbreviation use varies between institutions; always confirm in context.