P

See also: p, Ρ, and Appendix:Variations of "p"

P	U+0050, P LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P

← O
[U+004F]

Basic Latin

Q →
[U+0051]

Ｐ	U+FF30, Ｐ FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P

← Ｏ
[U+FF2F]

Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms

Ｑ →
[U+FF31]

🅿	U+1F17F, 🅿 NEGATIVE SQUARED LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P

← 🅾
[U+1F17E]

Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement

🆀 →
[U+1F180]

Translingual

Etymology

From the Etruscan letter 𐌐 (p, “pe”), from the Ancient Greek letter Π (P, “pi”), derived from the Phoenician letter 𐤐‎ (p, “pe”), from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓂋.

Letter

P (lower case p)

The sixteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.
- 1988, Mary Steele, Mallyroot's Pub at Misery Ponds, Ringwood: Puffin Books, page 73:
  "That doesn't look too flash either," frowned Henry. "Let's put the P back.""

Symbol

P

(chemistry) symbol for phosphorus
(metrology) symbol for peta-
(biochemistry) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for proline
(mathematics) probability
P(A) is the probability of A occurring
(physics) power
(physics) The symbol for poise.
(computer science) class of problems solvable in polynomial time
(linguistics) A wildcard for a plosive
synonyms: S for a 'stop'

Gallery

Letter styles
Uppercase and lowercase versions of P, in normal and italic type
Uppercase and lowercase P in Fraktur

English

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p, plural Ps or P's)

The sixteenth letter of the English alphabet, called pee and written in the Latin script.

Number

P (upper case, lower case p)

The ordinal number sixteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called pee and written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

Abbreviations.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /piː/
Rhymes: -iː
Audio (US) (file)

Noun

P (plural Ps)

Abbreviation of park.
Abbreviation of phone.
Abbreviation of pager.
Abbreviation of passenger.
Abbreviation of pocket.
5P garment
Alternative form of ₱ (Philippine peso)
(chess) Abbreviation of pawn.
(medicine) A P wave on an electrocardiogram.
(slang, chiefly US) Abbreviation of pure (A "pure" form of an illegal drug, especially heroin).
- 2009, Dr Kerry Spackman, The Winner's Bible:
  P directly targets the dopamine pathways in your brain and as a result goes straight to your pleasure/reward module, which makes it an incredibly hard drug to break free from.
(slang, New Zealand) Abbreviation of pure (A "pure" form of an illegal drug, especially methamphetamine).
- 2011, New Zealand Herald, 6 May 2011:
  Almost 70kg of pre-cursor drugs that could be used to manufacture $20 million of P have been seized by police and customs officers.
(UK, television) Initialism of product placement. (displayed on screen as an indicator to viewers)

Adjective

P (not comparable)

(UK) Abbreviation of probationary (used on a vehicle's P-plate)
(Australia) Abbreviation of provisional (used on a vehicle's P-plate)
(anatomy, medicine) Abbreviation of pulmonary.

Adverb

P (not comparable)

(chiefly US) Alternative spelling of P.M. (“post meridiem”) or PM

Proper noun

P

(computing theory) The set of all problems that are solvable in polynomial time by a deterministic Turing machine
(law) Initialism of patient. (the subject of proceedings in the Court of Protection)
(religion) Abbreviation of Priestly source.

Related terms

NP

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /pɪə/

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The sixteenth letter of the Afrikaans alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Noun

P (plural P's, diminutive P'tjie)

P

Azerbaijani

Letter

P upper case (lower case p)

The twenty-third letter of the Azerbaijani alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Basque

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /pe/, [pe̞]

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The seventeenth letter of the Basque alphabet, called pe and written in the Latin script.

Central Franconian

Etymology

/p/ is from West Germanic stem-initial or geminated *p; from *p in sp, mp, in Ripuarian also lp, rp; in most of Moselle Franconian from *bb.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /p/

Letter

P

A letter in the German-based alphabet of Central Franconian.
A letter in the Dutch-based alphabet of Central Franconian.

Usage notes

Doubling of P

In the German-based spelling, p is doubled after short vowels except in certain function words and when the letter is followed by another consonant within the word stem.
In the Dutch-based spelling, p is doubled after short vowels if the syllable were otherwise open.

Chinese

Etymology 1

Derived from English photoshop.

Pronunciation

Mandarin
(Pinyin): pī, pì (pi¹, pi⁴)
(Zhuyin): ㄆㄧ, ㄆㄧˋ
Cantonese (Jyutping): pi¹
Wu (Wiktionary): phi (T1)

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: pī
  - Zhuyin: ㄆㄧ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: pi
  - Wade–Giles: pʻi¹
  - Yale: pī
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: pi
  - Palladius: пи (pi)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰi⁵⁵/
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: pì
  - Zhuyin: ㄆㄧˋ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: pì
  - Wade–Giles: pʻi⁴
  - Yale: pì
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: pih
  - Palladius: пи (pi)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰi⁵¹/
Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
  - Jyutping: pi¹
  - Yale: pī
  - Cantonese Pinyin: pi¹
  - Guangdong Romanization: pi¹
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰiː⁵⁵/
Wu
- (Shanghainese)
  - Wiktionary: phi (T1)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰi⁵³/

Verb

P

(Internet slang) to photoshop

Derived terms

P圖／P图 (pītú)

Pronunciation

Mandarin
(Pinyin): pī (pi¹)
(Zhuyin): ㄆㄧ

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: P
  - Zhuyin: ㄆㄧ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: pi
  - Wade–Giles: pʻi¹
  - Yale: pī
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: pi
  - Palladius: пи (pi)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰi⁵⁵/

Noun

P

(LGBT) femme, lipstick lesbian

Antonyms

T (“butch lesbian”)

Pronunciation 1

Mandarin
(Pinyin): pī, pì (pi¹, pi⁴)
(Zhuyin): ㄆㄧ, ㄆㄧˋ
Cantonese (Jyutping): pi¹
Min Nan
(Hokkien, POJ): phi
(Teochew, Peng'im): pi¹
Wu (Wiktionary): phi (T1)

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: pī
  - Zhuyin: ㄆㄧ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: pi
  - Wade–Giles: pʻi¹
  - Yale: pī
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: pi
  - Palladius: пи (pi)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰi⁵⁵/
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: pì
  - Zhuyin: ㄆㄧˋ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: pì
  - Wade–Giles: pʻi⁴
  - Yale: pì
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: pih
  - Palladius: пи (pi)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰi⁵¹/
Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
  - Jyutping: pi¹
  - Yale: pī
  - Cantonese Pinyin: pi¹
  - Guangdong Romanization: pi¹
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰiː⁵⁵/
Min Nan
- (Hokkien: Xiamen)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: phi
  - Tâi-lô: phi
  - Phofsit Daibuun: phy
  - IPA (Xiamen): /pʰi⁴⁴/
- (Teochew)
  - Peng'im: pi¹
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: phi
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰi³³/
Wu
- (Shanghainese)
  - Wiktionary: phi (T1)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰi⁵³/

Letter

P

The sixteenth letter of the Latin alphabet.

Pronunciation 2

Mandarin
(Pinyin): pō, pê̄ (po¹, pê¹)
(Zhuyin): ㄆㄛ, ㄆㄝ

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese, common)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: pō
  - Zhuyin: ㄆㄛ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: po
  - Wade–Giles: pʻo¹
  - Yale: pwō
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: po
  - Palladius: по (po)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰwɔ⁵⁵/
- (Standard Chinese, official)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: pê̄
  - Zhuyin: ㄆㄝ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: pê
  - Wade–Giles: pʻeh¹
  - Yale: pē
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: pè
  - Palladius: пэй (pɛj)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰɛ⁵⁵/

Letter

P

The sixteenth letter used in Pinyin.

Usage notes

《汉语拼音方案》 defines a standard pronunciation for each letter. However, these pronunciations are rarely used in education; another pronunciation is commonly used instead.
The pronunciation above are only used while referring to letters in Pinyin. They are not used in other context (such as English).

Dutch

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /peː/
Audio (file)

Letter

P (capital, lowercase p)

The sixteenth letter of the Dutch alphabet.

Esperanto

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /po/
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /p/
Audio (file)
Homophone (letter name): po

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The twentieth letter of the Esperanto alphabet, called po and written in the Latin script.

Estonian

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The sixteenth letter of the Estonian alphabet, called pee and written in the Latin script.

Finnish

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The sixteenth letter of the Finnish alphabet, called pee and written in the Latin script.

German

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /peː/
Audio (file)

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The sixteenth letter of the German alphabet.

Hungarian

Pronunciation

(phoneme): IPA^(key): [ˈp]
(letter name): IPA^(key): [ˈpeː]

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The twenty-eighth letter of the Hungarian alphabet, called pé and written in the Latin script.

Declension

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, front unrounded harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	P	P-k
accusative	P-t	P-ket
dative	P-nek	P-knek
instrumental	P-vel	P-kkel
causal-final	P-ért	P-kért
translative	P-vé	P-kké
terminative	P-ig	P-kig
essive-formal	P-ként	P-kként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	P-ben	P-kben
superessive	P-n	P-ken
adessive	P-nél	P-knél
illative	P-be	P-kbe
sublative	P-re	P-kre
allative	P-hez	P-khez
elative	P-ből	P-kből
delative	P-ről	P-kről
ablative	P-től	P-ktől
non-attributive possessive - singular	P-é	P-ké
non-attributive possessive - plural	P-éi	P-kéi

Possessive forms of P
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	P-m	P-im
2nd person sing.	P-d	P-id
3rd person sing.	P-je	P-i
1st person plural	P-nk	P-ink
2nd person plural	P-tek	P-itek
3rd person plural	P-jük	P-ik

Ido

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /p/

Letter

P (lower case p)

The sixteenth letter of the Ido alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Italian

Pronunciation

(letter name) IPA^(key): ^**/ˈpi/^*
- Rhymes: -i
(phonemic realization) IPA^(key): /p/

Letter

P f or m (invariable, upper case, lower case p)

The fourteenth letter of the Italian alphabet, called pi and written in the Latin script.

Japanese

Etymology 1

From English producer. The VOCALOID sense may have arisen from an extension of the concept of producers in THE IDOLM@STER; both THE IDOLM@STER and VOCALOID were/are popular topics on the Niconico video sharing website.

Suffix

P(ピー) • (-pī)

(entertainment, music) Initialism of プロデューサー (purodyūsā, “producer”).
(more specifically) Used in the names of musicians who produce music featuring VOCALOID or adjacent software.
ささくれP(ピー)
sasakure-pī
sasakureP

Usage notes

(VOCALOID) The practice of bestowing or creating new "P-names" is largely extinct.

Derived terms

ボカロP(ピー) (bokaro-pī)
P名(ピーめい) (pī-mei)

Prefix

P(ピー) • (pī-)

(typography, especially in typeface names) Initialism of プロポーショナル (puropōshonaru, “proportional”).
M(エム)S(エス) P(ピー)ゴシック
Emuesu Pī-goshikku
MS PGothic

Noun

P(ピー) • (pī)

(video games, only in compounds) Initialism of プレイヤー (pureiyā, “player”).
2(ツー)P(ピー)カラー
tsū-pī karā
"player two" colors; alternate colors

Usage notes

Usage with the English-derived reading of numbers (2P(ツーピー)) is more common than usage with the Sino-Japanese reading of numbers (2P(にピー)).

Latvian

Etymology

Proposed in 1908 as part of the new Latvian spelling by the scientific commission headed by K. Mīlenbahs, which was accepted and began to be taught in schools in 1909. Prior to that, Latvian had been written in German Fraktur, and sporadically in Cyrillic.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [p]

Letter

P

P (upper case, lower case p)

The twenty-fourth letter of the Latvian alphabet, called pē and written in the Latin script.

Malay

Pronunciation

(Name of letter) IPA^(key): [pi]
(Phoneme, Syllable initial) IPA^(key): [p]
(Phoneme, Syllable final) IPA^(key): [p̚]

Letter

P

The sixteenth letter of the Malay alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Nupe

Pronunciation

(phoneme): IPA^(key): /p/

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The nineteenth letter of the Nupe alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Polish

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /pɛ/

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The twenty-second letter of the Polish alphabet, called pe and written in the Latin script.

Portuguese

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The sixteenth letter of the Portuguese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Romani

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /p/

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

(International Standard) The twentieth letter of the Romani alphabet, written in the Latin script.
(Pan-Vlax) The twenty-first letter of the Romani alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Romanian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /p/

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The nineteenth letter of the Romanian alphabet, called pe or pî and written in the Latin script.

Saanich

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /p/

Letter

P

The twenty-fourth letter of the Saanich alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Skolt Sami

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /p/

Letter

P (lower case p)

The twenty-sixth letter of the Skolt Sami alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Slovene

Letter

P (capital, lowercase p)

The 17th letter of the Slovene alphabet. Preceded by O and followed by R.

Spanish

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

the 17th letter of the Spanish alphabet

Turkish

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The twentieth letter of the Turkish alphabet, called pe and written in the Latin script.

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [pe˧˧], [ʔɓe˧˧ fəː˧˩], [pəː˨˩]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [pej˧˧], [ʔɓej˧˧ fəː˧˨], [pəː˦˩]
(Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [pej˧˧], [ʔɓej˧˧ fəː˨˩˦], [pəː˨˩]
Phonetic: pê, bê phở, pờ

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The twentieth letter of the Vietnamese alphabet, called pê, bê phở, or pờ and written in the Latin script.

Welsh

Pronunciation

(standard) IPA^(key): /piː/
- (informal) IPA^(key): /pə/

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The twentieth letter of the Welsh alphabet, called pi and written in the Latin script. It is preceded by O and followed by Ph.

Mutation

P at the beginning of words mutates to B in a soft mutation, to Mh in a nasal mutation and to Ph in an aspirate mutation, for example with the word prawf (“test”):

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
prawf	brawf	mhrawf	phrawf
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Yoruba

Pronunciation

(phoneme): IPA^(key): /k͡p/
(letter name): IPA^(key): /k͡pí/

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The eighteenth letter of the Yoruba alphabet, called pí and written in the Latin script.

Zulu

Letter

P (upper case, lower case p)

The sixteenth letter of the Zulu alphabet, written in the Latin script.