programmer
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of programmer
Explanation
Someone who writes software or programs for computers is called a programmer. If you develop an application for mobile devices, you can also call yourself a programmer. Programmers use a variety of computer languages to write the code (or instructions) that helps computers do the things their users want them to do. There are programmers who specialize in specific languages which are useful in various industries — some are used by financial institutions and others by scientists, for example. Evidence of the dramatic way things change over time is clear from the shift in this word's meaning: in 1890, a programmer was an "event planner."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
They formed an unlikely alliance with Abe Connally, a retired computer programmer and Democrat who had already mapped 25 Flock cameras in the county.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
Mr. Dudamel, it turns out, is a sly programmer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
“That Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffle commercial is incredible,” says programmer Branscome.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
In 2012, a French programmer called Stéphane Gigandet launched a free, online and crowdsourced food product database called Open Food Facts during the Food Revolution Day organised by English chef Jamie Oliver.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
The longer or more complex the program, the more cards the programmer fed the computer.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
They also said that podcasts, gaming and partnerships with programmers like TF1, a French television network, could bring in more ad revenue and keep people watching longer.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
The AI agents have been trained to act like collaborative hackers and programmers so are merely mimicking the kinds of emotive comments they have seen.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
But as OpenAI rolled out products from video creation to web browsers, Anthropic aimed far more narrowly, focusing on building the best platform for computer programmers.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
Murdoch even owned the Dodgers for a stretch to corner the market on what was then a Wild West shoot-out among TV programmers to launch cable channels.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Over the course of the chapters ahead, I’m going to introduce you to one kind of outlier after another: to geniuses, business tycoons, rock stars, and software programmers.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
