| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Ohm | Unit of resistance such that a constant current of one ampere produces a force of one volt |
| Optical Fiber Cable | UL (Underwriter's Laboratories) Standard 1651; National Electrical Code (NEC) Article 770 of NFPA 70 |
| OSHA | Abbreviation for Occupation Safety and Health Act (specifically the Williams-Steiger law passed in 1970, covering all factors relating to safety in places of employment) |
| Outgassing | The percentage of gas released during combustion of a material |
| Overall Diameter | Finished diameter over wire or cable |
| Overcoat | Individual strands of tin copper wire stranded together and then covered with a tin coating |
| Overcoated Copper | Stranded conductor with overall tin coating, typically used in AWG sized 28 through 18 AWG |
| Overlap | The amount the trailing edge laps over the leading edge of a tape wrap |
| Oxygen Index | Percentage of oxygen necessary to support combustion of a specified material |
| Ozone | A highly active form of oxygen produced by the passage of electric discharges or sparks through air or oxygen |
| P.O.S. | Abbreviation for Point-of-Sale |
| Pair | 2 insulated wires of a single circuit associated together |
| Pairing | The union of 2 insulated single conductors through twisting |
| PAP | A commonly used term for air core (unfilled) direct burial telephone cable with a corrugated aluminum shield |
| Parallel Cable | Two insulated conductors in parallel in a cable |
| PASP | An air core (unfilled) direct burial telephone cable used in areas subject to rodent attacks. It consists of an unfilled cable core, corrugated aluminum shield, corrugated steel tape, flooding compound and polyethylene jacket. |
| Peak Voltage | The maximum instantaneous voltage |
| Pennsylvania Bureau of Deep Mine Safety (P-MWMS) | Responsible for the health and safety of underground mines, caves and other commercial operations |
| Percent Conductivity | Conductivity of a material expressed as a percentage of that of copper |
| Periodicity | The uniformly spaced variations in the insulating diameter of a transmission cable that result in reflections of a signal, when its wavelength or a multiple thereof is equal to the distance between two diameter variations |
| Permittivity | See definition for "Dielectric Constant" |
| Pick | Distance between two adjacent crossover points of braid filaments |
| Pitch | In flat cable, the nominal distance between the index edges of two adjacent conductors |
| Pitch Diameter | Diameter of a circle passing through the center of the conductors in any layer of a multi-conductor cable |
| Plastic Deformation | Change in dimensions under load that is not recovered when the load is removed |
| Plasticizer | A chemical agent added to plastics to make them softer and more pliable |
| Plenum | The air return path of a central air handling system, either ductwork or open space over a dropped ceiling |
| Plenum cable | A flammability rating established by Underwriters Laboratories for wires and cables that pass a specially designed vertical flame test. This designation has been replaced by VW-1. |
| Polychloroprene | A synthetic rubber that possesses better characteristics than SBR, used mostly as jacket material. Has operating temperature range of -55°C to 90°C. |
| Polyester | Polyethylene terephthalate which is used extensively in the production of a high strength moisture resistant film used as a cable core wrap |
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