This question has been discussed numerous times at IPC meetings and usually enables a fair amount of emotion.

All of the following are possible uses, depending on your age, geographic location (slang usage), and where/how you got your training. I'm sure there are more.

PB - printed board. the most generic term for a bare board

PWB - printed wiring board, one of the first uses when the issue was only a point to point connection.

PCB - printed circuit board, where the width, side to side and multi-layer relationship(spacing) of conductor runs has or is designed to have a specific effect on circuit operation other than just a point to point connection. Circuit impedance is a primary issue. In approximately 1999 the IPC Technical Activities Executive Committee made a mandate to only use the term PCB for all new document development because more often than not the printed circuitry design will have an impact on function.

PWA - printed wire assembly - older use

PCA - printed circuit assembly - logical to use with the 1999 change to PCB.

PCBA - printed circuit board assembly - multiplerequests/comments (strong push) from users and technical committees in Asia and Europe to use this as the preferred term.

Embedded active or passive components opens up a whole new range of possibilities as well.

While it would be good to have a single term (or pair of terms for bare boards and assemblies) reality is that there are many IPCdocuments of various age using different terms and many more book and magazine article authors, conference lecturers, etc., that pretty much use whatever term they are most comfortable with.

If preparing a document; it would be appropriate to use a term that most of the expected users would understand. In the world of electronics technology, it would seem that most usersshould be able to understand the content when any of these terms are used.