PM
Abbreviation with 11 meanings
| Stands for | Prime Minister |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 11 |
| Categories | Government & Politics, Writing & Everyday, Business & Finance, Texting & Internet Slang, Medical, Geography & Places, Science & Engineering |
| Also written | p.m., Pm |
PM has 11 meanings. The most common are Prime Minister (UK government) and Post meridiem (after midday) (Latin); it can also stand for Project management, Project manager, Private message, Portfolio manager and Product manager, plus 4 more listed below.
Meanings of PM at a glance
| # | PM stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prime Minister | Government & Politics › UK Government |
| 2 | Post meridiem (after midday) | Writing & Everyday › Latin |
| 3 | Project management | Business & Finance › Project Management |
| 4 | Project manager | Business & Finance › Job Title |
| 5 | Private message | Texting & Internet Slang › Social Media |
| 6 | Portfolio manager | Business & Finance › Job Title |
| 7 | Product manager | Business & Finance › Job Title |
| 8 | Nighttime formula | Medical › Pharmacy |
| 9 | Polymyositis | Medical › Musculoskeletal & Rheumatology |
| 10 | Saint Pierre and Miquelon | Geography & Places › Country Code |
| 11 | Promethium | Science & Engineering › Chemical Element |
1. Prime Minister
Government & Politics · UK Government Abbreviations
Head of the UK government, appointed by the monarch as the person best able to command the confidence of the House of Commons, normally the leader of its largest party. The PM chairs the Cabinet, leads policy and lives and works at 10 Downing Street.
Example: The PM will make a statement to the House after the summit.
Robert Walpole, who led the government from 1721 to 1742, is regarded as the first prime minister, though the title was not official for centuries. The PM is also First Lord of the Treasury. Other Westminster-style systems, including Canada, Australia, India and New Zealand, also have prime ministers. In time notation, p.m. means post meridiem.
2. Post meridiem (after midday) (p.m.)
Writing & Everyday · Latin Abbreviations · also used in measurement
Marks clock times from noon until just before midnight on the 12-hour clock. It separates afternoon and evening hours from morning ones, so 3 p.m. corresponds to 15:00 in the 24-hour notation used by militaries, airlines and most of continental Europe.
Example: Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the concert begins promptly at 7:30 p.m.
Lowercase with periods is standard in American style guides; British publications often print pm. Put a space between the number and the abbreviation (7 p.m., not 7p.m.), and AP style omits ":00" for whole hours. Noon is technically neither a.m. nor p.m., although 12 p.m. is widely understood as midday. Do not confuse it with PM for prime minister or post-mortem.
3. Project management
Business & Finance · Project Management Abbreviations
Discipline of planning, organizing and controlling work, people and budgets to deliver a defined result, such as a building, software release or event, within agreed scope, time and cost. Approaches range from predictive (waterfall) planning to agile and hybrid methods.
Example: We brought in a consultant to set up PM practices before the ERP rollout.
The modern discipline grew out of mid-20th-century defense, aerospace and construction programs, which produced tools such as the critical path method and PERT. Major professional bodies include the Project Management Institute (founded 1969), the UK's Association for Project Management and the International Project Management Association. In job titles, PM usually means project manager or product manager, and in clock times it means post meridiem.
4. Project manager
Business & Finance · Job Title Abbreviations
Professional responsible for planning, executing and closing a project within its scope, schedule and budget, coordinating the team, managing risks and reporting progress to stakeholders. Project managers work in construction, IT, engineering, consulting and nearly every other industry.
Example: The PM moved the go-live to April after the vendor missed two integration milestones.
The Project Management Institute's PMP certification and the UK's PRINCE2 methodology are widely recognized credentials. Project managers differ from product managers, who decide what to build rather than how to deliver it. PM also means post meridiem (afternoon) and prime minister.
5. Private message
Texting & Internet Slang · Social Media Abbreviations
Private one-to-one message on a forum, message board or social site, the older counterpart of DM. Used as a noun and a verb, as in "PM me for details."
Example: Selling my old graphics card, PM me if you want specs or photos.
Standard on 2000s forum software such as phpBB and vBulletin, and long used on Reddit before its chat features arrived. Younger users now say DM for the same thing. Outside the internet, PM most often means post meridiem (afternoon) or prime minister, which surrounding words make clear.
6. Portfolio manager
Business & Finance · Job Title Abbreviations
Investment professional who manages a fund or set of client accounts, making buy and sell decisions within a stated strategy and risk limits and answering for performance against a benchmark. PMs work at mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds, insurers and wealth managers.
Example: The fund's PM trimmed its bank holdings and added to long-dated Treasuries.
Portfolio managers are supported by analysts and traders and are often paid partly on performance; many hold the CFA charter. In project portfolio management, the same title can describe someone overseeing a group of projects, a different role.
7. Product manager
Business & Finance · Job Title Abbreviations
Professional who decides what a product should do and why, gathering customer insights, defining requirements, prioritizing features and working with engineering, design and marketing to launch and improve it. PMs are central to software and technology companies.
Example: The PM wrote the spec for offline mode after interviewing 30 field technicians.
Product managers are often described as the "CEO of the product," though they usually have no direct authority over engineers. The role differs from project manager, which focuses on delivering a defined scope on time and budget, and from product owner in Scrum teams. In a tech company job posting, PM usually means product manager.
8. Nighttime formula
Medical · Pharmacy Abbreviations
Suffix on over-the-counter products that add a sedating antihistamine, usually diphenhydramine or doxylamine, to a pain reliever, as in Tylenol PM and Advil PM. They are marketed for pain that keeps people awake.
Example: Tylenol PM contains acetaminophen 500 mg and diphenhydramine 25 mg per caplet.
The American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria advise older adults to avoid diphenhydramine because of confusion, falls and urinary retention. Doubling up on a "PM" product and a regular pain reliever can exceed acetaminophen limits. PM in everyday English abbreviates post meridiem.
9. Polymyositis
Medical · Musculoskeletal & Rheumatology Abbreviations
Inflammatory muscle disease causing symmetric proximal weakness and elevated creatine kinase without the skin rash of dermatomyositis. Treatment uses corticosteroids and steroid-sparing drugs such as methotrexate or azathioprine.
Example: PM suspected: hip-flexor weakness, CK 6,800; muscle biopsy and myositis antibody panel ordered.
Modern classification has made pure polymyositis a rare diagnosis; many patients once labeled PM are now classified as inclusion body myositis, immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy or antisynthetase syndrome. In everyday writing p.m. means afternoon (post meridiem), while capitalized PM in a rheumatology note refers to this disease.
10. Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Geography & Places · Country Code Abbreviations
French overseas collectivity of small islands just south of Newfoundland, with Saint-Pierre as its capital, the last remnant of New France in North America.
Example: Ferries from Fortune, Newfoundland reach PM in about 90 minutes.
The islands use the euro and French law although they lie off Canada's coast. The alpha-3 code is SPM.
11. Promethium (Pm)
Science & Engineering · Chemical Element Abbreviations
The only lanthanide with no stable isotopes, promethium (atomic number 61) exists in nature only as tiny traces in uranium ores. Promethium-147 has been used in luminous paint, industrial thickness gauges and atomic batteries for early pacemakers and space probes.
Example: The beta source in the thickness gauge is a sealed Pm-147 capsule.
Jacob Marinsky, Lawrence Glendenin and Charles Coryell identified it in 1945 among uranium fission products at Clinton Laboratories (later Oak Ridge), announcing the discovery in 1947. Coryell's wife, Grace Mary Coryell, suggested naming it after Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods. Earlier claimed discoveries under names such as illinium could not be confirmed.
Related abbreviations
More UK government abbreviations
- ONS – Office for National Statistics
- PAYE – Pay As You Earn
- PC – Plaid Cymru
- PIP – Personal Independence Payment
- PMQs – Prime Minister's Questions
- PPS – Parliamentary Private Secretary
- PRA – Prudential Regulation Authority
- SDLP – Social Democratic and Labour Party
See all 91 UK government abbreviations →
More Latin abbreviations
- N.B. – Nota bene (note well)
- nem. con. – Nemine contradicente (with no one dissenting)
- op. cit. – Opere citato (in the work cited)
- p.a. – Per annum (per year)
- p.p. – Per procurationem (by agency, on behalf of)
- P.S. – Post scriptum (postscript)
- pinx. – Pinxit (painted it)
- pro tem. – Pro tempore (for the time being)
See all 53 Latin abbreviations →
This entry is for general education and is not medical advice. Abbreviation use varies between institutions; always confirm in context.