PST
Abbreviation with 5 meanings
| Stands for | Pacific Standard Time |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 5 |
| Categories | Units & Measurements, Technology & Computing, Business & Finance, Texting & Internet Slang |
PST has five meanings. The most common are Pacific Standard Time (time zone) and Philippine Standard Time (time zone); it can also stand for Personal Storage Table, Provincial sales tax and Please send tell.
Meanings of PST at a glance
| # | PST stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pacific Standard Time | Units & Measurements › Time Zone |
| 2 | Philippine Standard Time | Units & Measurements › Time Zone |
| 3 | Personal Storage Table | Technology & Computing › File Format |
| 4 | Provincial sales tax | Business & Finance › Tax |
| 5 | Please send tell | Texting & Internet Slang › Gaming Slang |
1. Pacific Standard Time
Units & Measurements · Time Zone Abbreviations
Winter time of the US West Coast, British Columbia and Baja California, eight hours behind UTC, in effect from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March. Los Angeles is three hours behind New York.
Example: Applications must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. PST on January 15.
People often write PST all year, but from March to November the correct label is PDT (UTC−7), and PT avoids the problem. The Pacific zone was one of four set up by US and Canadian railroads in 1883. In the Philippines, PST means Philippine Standard Time, 16 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time.
2. Philippine Standard Time
Units & Measurements · Time Zone Abbreviations
Official time of the Philippines, eight hours ahead of UTC, used all year without daylight saving. It matches China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Western Australia.
Example: Live draw at 9 p.m. PST tonight, broadcast nationwide from Manila.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) keeps the country's official time. To avoid confusion with US Pacific time, international sources often write PHT or PhST. Everyday Philippine usage follows American conventions such as the 12-hour clock and month-first dates.
3. Personal Storage Table
Technology & Computing · File Format Abbreviations
Microsoft Outlook data file that stores email, calendar items, contacts and tasks on a local computer, used for archives and for accounts that keep mail offline. Files can grow to many gigabytes.
Example: Export the old mailbox to a PST before the account is deleted.
Modern Outlook versions create Unicode PST files with a default maximum size of 50 GB, while the original ANSI format was limited to 2 GB. Large PST files are prone to corruption, which Outlook's Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe) tries to fix. Cached Exchange and Microsoft 365 accounts use a similar OST (offline storage table) file. In time zones, PST means Pacific Standard Time.
4. Provincial sales tax
Business & Finance · Tax Abbreviations
Retail sales tax charged by Canadian provinces that have not harmonized with the federal GST, including British Columbia (7%), Saskatchewan (6%) and Manitoba (7%, officially retail sales tax). Unlike GST, it is generally not recoverable by businesses on their purchases.
Example: Your receipt shows 5% GST and 7% PST on the bike.
Alberta and the three territories have no provincial sales tax, so shoppers there pay only the 5% GST. Quebec's equivalent, the QST, is a value-added tax with its own rules.
5. Please send tell
Texting & Internet Slang · Gaming Slang Abbreviations
Asks interested players to contact the poster through a private message ("tell" or "whisper") rather than in public chat. Common in MMORPG trade and group-finding posts.
Example: LFM for the dungeon run, need a healer, PST.
"Tell" was the name for private messages in EverQuest and World of Warcraft, sent with the /tell command. Outside games, PST is Pacific Standard Time, the North American time zone, which context makes clear.
Related abbreviations
More time zone abbreviations
- NZDT – New Zealand Daylight Time
- NZST – New Zealand Standard Time
- PDT – Pacific Daylight Time
- PKT – Pakistan Standard Time
- PT – Pacific Time
- SAST – South African Standard Time
- SGT – Singapore Standard Time
- SST – Samoa Standard Time
See all 64 time zone abbreviations →