Word.ws English Dictionary

pa

/pɑː/

pa noun: father, papa.

Noun (1)

pa (plural pas)

  1. (colloquial) Father, papa.
    Synonyms:
    da, dad, daddy, papa, pater, pappy, pop, poppy
  2. (colloquial) Grandpa, grandfather.
    Synonyms:
    grandpapa, grandpappy, grandpop, grandpoppy, pappy, pop, poppy, big daddy

Noun (2)

pa (plural pas)

  1. (New Zealand, historical) A fortified Maori settlement, especially of pre-European times.
    • The very existence of fortified pā was often a sign that those who lived near such complexes sought to discourage attack and wanted to make conflict less likely, not more so.2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 71
    • A pa or Māori defence fortification appears at a height on the hill above the bay.2020, Sujit Sivasundaram, Waves Across the South, William Collins, published 2021, page 68
  2. (New Zealand) Any Maori village or settlement; a kainga.

Proper noun capitalized: PA

PA

  1. (abbreviation, postal) Abbreviation of Pennsylvania: a state of the United States.
    • Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit? / Heard about Pittsburgh, PA?1979 August 3, Talking Heads, “Life During Wartime”, in Fear of Music
  2. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of Papua: a province of Indonesia.
  3. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of Pará: a state of Brazil.
  4. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Palestinian Authority.
    • The European Union was more restrained in its support, on the grounds that it would be preferable for Israel to negotiate its withdrawal as part of an agreement with the PA. The PA and Arab governments criticized Sharon for planning to act without consulting them.2009, Rafael Medoff, Chaim I. Waxman, The A to Z of Zionism, →ISBN, archived from the original on 27 Nov 2023, page 64
    • He believes that the PA is more entrenched inside Gaza than recognised, saying that, despite being ejected from Gaza as a political and security force in 2007, the PA was still delivering many public services including health and schools in Gaza.2023 November 27, Patrick Wintour, “Hamas cannot continue to rule Gaza, says EU foreign affairs chief”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  5. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Proto-Algonquian (sometimes abbreviated PAn to distinguish it from Proto-Algic, but usually just abbreviated PA with Proto-Algic being abbreviated PAc).
  6. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Proto-Algic (sometimes abbreviated PAc to distinguish it from Proto-Algonquian).
  7. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Proto-Athabaskan.
  8. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Prince Albert: a city in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Noun (3) capitalized: PA

PA (countable and uncountable, plural PAs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of public address.
    • “Shuttle sensors detect no communications, heat signatures out of the ordinary, or other signals,” SAM-E said over the shuttle’s PA.2017 November, N. K. Jemisin, Mac Walters, chapter 13, in Mass Effect Andromeda: Initiation, 1st edition (Science Fiction), Titan Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 242
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of production assistant.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of personal assistant.
    • Jen: Douglas has asked me to be his PA.
      Moss: Oh. My. God! Well, that is something and a half. His PA? How... Whoa! His PA... Shut up! His PA!
      Jen: It means "personal assistant".
      Moss: Thank you. Right, OK.2007 September 28, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 2, Episode 6
  4. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of personal appearance (when a celebrity visits a public event).
  5. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of power amplifier.
  6. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Prince Albert (“genital piercing”).
  7. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of public accountant.
  8. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of public act.
  9. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of physician assistant.
  10. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of physician associate.
  11. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of polyamide.
  12. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of pyrrolizidine alkaloid.
Show 5 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Peano arithmetic.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of pulmonary artery.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism, Manitoba, Saskatchewan) Initialism of Parental Accompaniment.
  4. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of precision agriculture.
  5. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of points against.
    • Coordinate term: PF
    • The Giants and Commanders have the same record after 13 games each. However, Washington has control of third place in the NFC East due to a better PF/PA record in comparison to the Giants.2022 December 14, “NFL Playoff picture Week 15: Are the New York Giants still in contention for the postseason?”, in Sportskeeda, archived from the original on 17 Dec 2022

Adjective capitalized: PA

PA (not comparable)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of posteroanterior.

Phrase capitalized: PA

PA

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of per annum.
    • an interest rate of 3% PA

Noun (4) capitalized: Pa

Pa (uncountable)

  1. (informal) Father, dad, papa.
    • Hey, Pa, I'd like you to meet my friend.
    Synonyms:
    dad, daddy, papa, pater, da, ayr, ba, baba, dada, daddio
  2. A short form of grandpa; grandfather.

pa meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

pa in Hindi

पा

pa in Tamil

father
பா pā

pa in Marathi

पा

pa in Urdu

پا, پی اے
More languagesFewer languages
pa in Telugu
పా
pa in Malayalam
പാ
pa in Kannada
ಪಾ
pa in Gujarati
પા
pa in Nepali
पा

Examples of pa in a sentence

  • My ma was born in the forties and my pa was born in the seventies.
  • Pa went to town to buy a new plough.
  • Pa strings the lights while Janet takes the ornaments one by one from the cardboard egg-crates.

All 18 example sentences with pa

Synonyms of pa

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of pa

Forms of pa

pluralpas
alternative formpah
pluralPAs

Plural of pa: pas

Origin of pa

Clipping of papa.

Borrowed from Māori pā.

Words formed from pa

Phrases with pa

Words that rhyme with pa

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pa

What does pa mean?
Pa means father, papa.
What is pa in Hindi?
Pa in Hindi is पा. See Pa meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is pa?
Pa can be a noun, a proper noun, an adjective or a phrase.
How do you pronounce pa?
Pa is pronounced /pɑː/.
What is the plural of pa?
The plural of pa is pas.

Words near pa in the dictionary

  1. P60s
  2. P95
  3. P95s
  4. P99
  5. P99s
  6. pa
  7. PA cage
  8. pa chew cheng
  9. pa rum pum pum pum
  10. PA speaker
  11. PA speakers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pa (page history and authors); PA (page history and authors); Pa (page history and authors); pa (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pa (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pa (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pa (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pa (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pa (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pa (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pa (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pa.wav.

Cite this entry: “pa.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pa. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.