All articles starting with P
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Professional employer organization
A professional employer organization (PEO) provides payroll, benefits, workers' compensation, and HR services to client businesses under a co-employment arrangement, while clients keep day-to-day control.
Professional Engineer
A Professional Engineer (PE) is an engineer licensed by a government jurisdiction to prepare, sign, and seal engineering plans, a license created to protect public safety.
Professional Engineers Ontario
Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) is the licensing and regulating body for professional engineering in Ontario, established in 1922 to serve and protect the public interest.
Professional ethics
Professional ethics is the set of principles and values central to a profession, expressed in codes of ethics such as the APA, ABA Model Rules, and nursing and engineering codes, combining aspirational principles with enforceable standards.
Professional Fighters League
The Professional Fighters League (PFL), formerly World Series of Fighting, is an American MMA organization that became the second-largest behind the UFC after acquiring Bellator in 2023.
Professional Golfers' Association of America
PGA of America (Professional Golfers' Association of America), founded 1916, is the membership body of ~33,000 U.S. club and teaching golf professionals; distinct from the PGA Tour, it owns the PGA Championship, KPMG Women's PGA, and U.S.-hosted Ryder Cup.
Professional liability insurance
Professional liability insurance, also called errors and omissions or malpractice insurance, covers professionals such as doctors and lawyers against claims that negligence in their services caused a client financial loss.
Professional Misconduct
Professional misconduct is a violation of laws, regulations, or professional standards (MeSH D028743, 2002), also called unprofessional behavior. Distinct from malpractice; includes research misconduct (fabrication, falsification, plagiarism) and medical, legal, and disciplinary adjudication.
Professional Practice
Professional practice is the use of a person's specialized knowledge in a profession. In health care, it covers practitioners' duties and the standards and regulation that shape them.
Professional Putters Association
Professional Putters Association (PPA), founded circa 1959 by Putt-Putt creator Don Clayton, is the US pro league for competitive Putt-Putt miniature golf, with Pro and APA divisions, regional tours, national championships, and over $8 million in prize money awarded.
Professional Review Organizations
Professional Review Organizations (PROs), formerly PSROs and now Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs), are regionally contracted Medicare peer review bodies reviewing medical necessity, quality, and cost-effectiveness of care, created by the 1972 Social Security Amendments and reshaped by the 1982 Peer Review Improvement Act.
Professional Scrum Master
Professional Scrum Master (PSM) is a family of Scrum Master certifications offered by Scrum.org, an organization founded in 2009 by Ken Schwaber, the co-creator of Scrum. Certifications are earned by passing online assessments at three levels.
Professional services
Professional services are knowledge-intensive services, such as legal, accounting, engineering, and consulting work, delivered by highly trained experts; in US statistics the sector is NAICS 54.
Professional shogi player (将棋棋士)
Professional shogi player (将棋棋士, kishi): a Japan Shogi Association-certified pro competing in eight title matches; entered via the Shoreikai apprenticeship to 4-dan; over 230 players, all currently male until Tomoka Nishiyama's 2026 Hakurei-based eligibility.
Professional Ski Instructors of America
The Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA), legally the American Snowsports Education Association, is the national certification body for US snowsports instructors, founded in 1961.
Professional sports
Professional sports: paid-athlete competition organized through leagues. Also called pro sport; contrasts with amateurism, abolished at the Olympics by the 1990s. Key features: closed versus promotion-relegation leagues, salary caps, revenue sharing, and multi-billion-dollar media rights.
Professional Tax
Professional tax is a state-level Indian tax on employment, profession, trade, or calling under Article 276 of the Constitution, capped at ₹2,500 per person per year, deducted from salary by employers and deductible under Section 16(iii) of the Income-tax Act.
Professional Tennis Registry and USPTA
The Professional Tennis Registry and USPTA, rebranded in 2024 as the Racquet Sports Professionals Association, certify tennis-teaching professionals in the United States, with over 16,000 and 11,000 members respectively.
Professional wargaming
Professional wargaming is military use of structured, adjudicated games for training, planning, and analysis, originating in the Prussian Kriegsspiel of the 1820s; modern practice spans NATO, US, and UK institutions and now integrates AI and forecasting.
Professional Women's Bowling Association
Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA), the US women's pro ten-pin bowling tour founded 1960, folded after 2003, relaunched 2015 by USBC and BPAA; majors are the USBC Queens and U.S. Women's Open.
Professional Women's Hockey League
The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) is a professional women's ice hockey league in North America that began play in January 2024 with six teams.
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling, staged athletic entertainment with predetermined outcomes and kayfabe pretence of real combat; styles include lucha libre, puroresu, catch; major promotions WWE, CMLL, AAA, NJPW; real injury risk despite scripting.
Professional wrestling aerial techniques
Professional wrestling aerial techniques, often called high-flying moves, are attacks launched from elevated positions such as the top turnbuckle, ranging from simple dives to multi-rotation presses.
Professional wrestling championship
Professional wrestling championship: a scripted accolade, usually a title belt modeled on boxing belts, marking top status in a promotion. Includes world, tag team, women's, and gimmick titles; NWA territory-era traveling champion lineage.
Professional wrestling holds
Professional wrestling holds are techniques used in scripted matches to restrain, control, or force a submission, with most holds adapted from catch wrestling, which developed in Lancashire, England.
Professional wrestling in Mexico
Professional wrestling in Mexico (lucha libre): scripted wrestling since 1933, defined by masks, two-of-three-fall matches, CMLL and AAA promotions, 2018 Mexico City heritage status, and WWE's 2025 acquisition of AAA.
Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom
Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom: British pro wrestling under the 1946 Mountevans rules, the ITV World of Sport golden era, WWF's 1986-1993 rise, and today's unregulated independent scene.
Professional wrestling match types
Professional wrestling match types (gimmick or concept matches): rule sets from singles and tag team basics to hardcore, weapon, cage, and stipulation formats like Falls Count Anywhere, Iron Man, Royal Rumble, Money in the Bank, and Punjabi Prison.
Professional wrestling throws
Professional wrestling throws: techniques lifting an opponent and throwing or slamming them down, the core of pro wrestling action. Rooted in catch wrestling; includes suplexes, bodyslams, powerslams, chokeslams.
Professor
Professor: senior academic rank at universities, from medieval Latin origins through regius chairs to the modern assistant-associate-full ladder; covers tenure, contingent faculty, pay ($85,330 US median, 2025), and international rank systems.