A search of the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) was carried out for phosphine-water and arsine-water complexes in which water is either the proton donor in hydrogen-bonded complexes, or the electron-pair donor in pnicogen-bonded complexes. The range of experimental P-O distances in the phosphine complexes is consistent with the results of ab initio MP2/aug'-cc-pVTZ calculations carried out on complexes H 2 XP:OH 2 , for X = NC, F, Cl, CN, OH, CCH, H, and CH 3 . Only hydrogen-bonded complexes are found on the H 2 (CH 3 )P:HOH and H 3 P:HOH potential surfaces, while only pnicogen-bonded complexes exist on H 2 (NC)P:OH 2 , H 2 FP:OH 2 , H 2 (CN)P:OH 2 , and H 2 (OH)P:OH 2 surfaces. Both hydrogen-bonded and pnicogen-bonded complexes are found on the H 2 ClP:OH 2 and H 2 (CCH)P:OH 2 surfaces, with the pnicogen-bonded complexes more stable than the corresponding hydrogen-bonded complexes. The more electronegative substituents prefer to form pnicogen-bonded complexes, while the more electropositive substituents form hydrogen-bonded complexes. The H 2 XP:OH 2 complexes are characterized in terms of their structures, binding energies, charge-transfer energies, and spin-spin coupling constants 2h J(O-P), 1h J(H-P), and 1 J(O-H) across hydrogen bonds, and 1p J(P-O) across pnicogen bonds.