| Acronym | Meaning |
| PVO | Pseudovalence Orbital |
| PVOH | Polyvinyl Alcohol |
| PVP | Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone |
| PVR | Pulmonary Vascular Resistance |
| PVS | Performance Verification Sample |
| PW-LDA | Plane Wave-local Density Approxn. |
| PW-TDSE | Plane Wave-time Dependent Schroedinger Equation |
| PWB | Printed Wiring Board |
| PWBA | Plane-Wave Born Approximation |
| PWBA-C | Coulomb Corrected Plane Wave Born Approxn. |
| PWBA-C-EX | Coulomb Corrected Plane Wave Born Approxn. (with) Exchange |
| PWBA-EX | Plane-wave Born Approxn. (with) Exchange |
| PWBA-R | Plane-wave Born Approxn. With Relativistic Effects |
| PWBE | Plane-wave Born Approxn. With Exchange |
| PWEM | Partial-wave-expansion Method (in Electron Scattering Calcns.) |
| PWETF | Plane-wave Electronic Translational Factor (ion-atom Collisions) |
| PWFB | Plane-wave First Born |
| PWG SCF | Plane-wave Gaussian Self-consistent Field Method |
| PWHF | Plane-wave Hartree-Fock |
| PWHT | Post-weld Heat Treatment |
| PWIA | Plane-wave Impulse Approximation |
| PWM | Pokeweed Mitogen |
| PWM | Pulse Width Modulation |
| PWO | Plane Wave Orbital |
| PWPP | Plane-wave Pseudopotential |
| PWR | Pressurized Water Reactor |
| PWRI | Public Works Research Institute (Japan) |
| PWS | Public Water System |
| PWSA | Ports And Waterways Safety Act |
| PWSB | Plane-wave Second Born |
| PWSCF | Partial-wave Self-consistent Field |
| PWTF | Plane-wave Translation Factors (in Atom-ion Inelastic Collisions) |
| PWTM | Plane-wave T-matrix (for Electron-atom Scattering) |
| PXD | Powder X-ray Diffraction |
| PXR | Pregnane X Receptorpar |
| PXR | Parametric X-ray |
| PXRD | Powder X-ray Diffraction |
| PXRF | Polarized X-ray Fluorescence |
| PYMS | Pyrolysis Mass Spectrometry |
| PYS | Partial Yield Spectroscopy |
| PZC | Polyzirconium Compound (isopropyl Alc.-zirconium Chloride Copolymer) |
| PZC | Point Of Zero Charge (of Water) |
| PZC | Potential Of Zero Charge |
| PZEV | Partial Zero Emission Vehicle |
| PZN | Lead Zinc Niobate |
| PZT | Lead Zirconate Titanate |
| PZT | Piezoelectric Transducer |
| QA | Quality Assurance |
| QA/QC | Quality Assurance/quality Control |
| QAC | Quaternary Ammonium Compound |