PA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does PA mean? 

• PA (noun)
  The noun PA has 5 senses:

1. an informal term for a father; probably derived from baby talk

2. a short-lived radioactive metallic element formed from uranium and disintegrating into actinium and then into lead

3. a unit of pressure equal to one newton per square meter

4. a Mid-Atlantic state; one of the original 13 colonies

5. an electronic amplification system used as a communication system in public areas

  Familiarity information: PA used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An informal term for a father; probably derived from baby talk

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

dad; dada; daddy; pa; papa; pappa; pop

Hypernyms ("pa" is a kind of...):

begetter; father; male parent (a male parent (also used as a term of address to your father))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A short-lived radioactive metallic element formed from uranium and disintegrating into actinium and then into lead

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

atomic number 91; Pa; protactinium; protoactinium

Hypernyms ("Pa" is a kind of...):

metal; metallic element (any of several chemical elements that are usually shiny solids that conduct heat or electricity and can be formed into sheets etc.)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A unit of pressure equal to one newton per square meter

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

Pa; pascal

Hypernyms ("Pa" is a kind of...):

pressure unit (a unit measuring force per unit area)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A Mid-Atlantic state; one of the original 13 colonies

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Keystone State; PA; Pa.; Pennsylvania

Instance hypernyms:

American state (one of the 50 states of the United States)

Meronyms (parts of "PA"):

Gettysburg (a small town in southern Pennsylvania; site of a national cemetery)

Susquehanna; Susquehanna River (a river in the northeastern United States that rises in New York and flows southward through Pennsylvania and Maryland into Chesapeake Bay)

Monongahela; Monongahela River (a river that rises in northern West Virginia and flows north into Pennsylvania where it joins the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River)

Lehigh River (a river in eastern Pennsylvania that flows southeast into the Delaware River)

Blue Ridge; Blue Ridge Mountains (a range of the Appalachians extending from southern Pennsylvania to northern Georgia)

Allegheny; Allegheny River (a river that rises in Pennsylvania and flows north into New York and then back south through Pennsylvania again to join the Monongahela River at Pittsburgh which is the beginning of the Ohio River)

Alleghenies; Allegheny Mountains (the western part of the Appalachian Mountains; extending from northern Pennsylvania to southwestern Virginia)

Pittsburgh (a city in southwestern Pennsylvania where the confluence of the Allegheny River and Monongahela River forms the Ohio River; long an important urban industrial area; site of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh)

City of Brotherly Love; Philadelphia (the largest city in Pennsylvania; located in the southeastern part of the state on the Delaware river; site of Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed; site of the University of Pennsylvania)

Chester (a city of southeastern Pennsylvania on the Delaware river (an industrial suburb of Philadelphia))

capital of Pennsylvania; Harrisburg (capital of Pennsylvania; located in southern part of state)

Erie (a port city on Lake Erie in northwestern Pennsylvania)

Bethlehem (a town in eastern Pennsylvania on the Lehigh River to the northwest of Philadelphia; an important center for steel production)

Altoona (a town in central Pennsylvania)

Allentown (a city in eastern Pennsylvania; an industrial and commercial center)

Penn; Pennsylvania; University of Pennsylvania (a university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Domain member region:

Battle of Gettysburg; Gettysburg (a battle of the American Civil War (1863); the defeat of Robert E. Lee's invading Confederate Army was a major victory for the Union)

Holonyms ("PA" is a part of...):

America; the States; U.S.; U.S.A.; United States; United States of America; US; USA (North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776)

Mid-Atlantic states (a region of the eastern United States comprising New York and New Jersey and Pennsylvania and Delaware and Maryland)

Sense 5

Meaning:

An electronic amplification system used as a communication system in public areas

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

P.A.; P.A. system; PA; PA system; public address system

Hypernyms ("PA" is a kind of...):

communication system (a system for communicating)

Meronyms (parts of "PA"):

loudspeaker; loudspeaker system; speaker; speaker system; speaker unit (electro-acoustic transducer that converts electrical signals into sounds loud enough to be heard at a distance)

tannoy (a loudspeaker)

amplifier (electronic equipment that increases strength of signals passing through it)

 Context examples 

Administration of ganciclovir following PA-1 STK transfection results in enhanced cytotoxicity of the transfected tumor cells.

(PA-1-STK Ovarian Carcinoma Vaccine, NCI Thesaurus)

PAs are licensed by a state authority.

(Physician assistant, NCI Thesaurus)

Pa thought I had a decline and took me to half the doctors in ’Frisco.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Desmopressin binds to V2 receptors in renal collecting ducts which leads to exocytosis of von Willebrand factor (VWF) and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) from Weibel-Palade bodies, thereby increasing water resorption.

(Desmopressin, NCI Thesaurus)

Proteolytic cleavage of cell-bound PA creates a smaller fragment that then multimerizes into a pore-like structure in the plasma membrane.

(Anthrax Toxin Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

Diphtheria and PA toxins inhibit protein synthesis by catalyzing covalent ADP-ribosylation of EF2 (from NAD).

(Elongation Factor 2, NCI Thesaurus)

A PA may take medical histories, do physical exams, take blood and urine samples, care for wounds, and give injections and immunizations.

(PA, NCI Dictionary)

Also called PA.

(Physician assistant, NCI Dictionary)

The entry of toxin into cells begins with the recognition of a cellular receptor in the plasma membrane by PA.

(Anthrax Toxin Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

PA-1-STK ovarian carcinoma vaccine is produced by transducing the ovarian cancer cell line, PA-1, with the herpes simplex thymidine kinase (HSV-tk) gene, resulting in a cell line, PA-1-STK, that permanently expresses the HSV tk gene.

(PA-1-STK Ovarian Carcinoma Vaccine, NCI Thesaurus)