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:
“Then it became: What if we reached out to Mel and asked if he wanted to put his programmer hat on and take over our calendar and see what he would come up with?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Tencent has also been among the Chinese tech giants racing to take advantage of a surge in interest in the country in OpenClaw -- an AI agent platform created by an Austrian programmer.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
After 60 years of loving to drive, it wasn’t easy to admit that Elon Musk is a better programmer than I am a driver.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 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 anonymous seller claimed to be a former IOI contract programmer and one of the lead architects of its company intranet.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
Chinese AI cybersecurity tool Artex said it stopped programmers from accessing its source code, acknowledging misuse by "bad actors" after South Korea linked it to several recent bank hacks.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
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 targeted website, DseWiki, is a Wikipedia-style site for programmers that its community can all contribute to.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
The FCC said it is “working to constrain the outsized power of national programmers while empowering local TV stations to serve their licensed communities.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
In these early days of the computer revolution, programmers with that kind of specialized experience were hard to find.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
Definitions 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.
