Program or programme?
In American English write program; in British and Commonwealth English, programme. program is a noun meaning “A set of structured activities; a plan of action”; programme is a noun meaning “UK, New Zealand, and India standard spelling of program”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) program is about 5.0 times as common as programme.
What is the difference between program and programme?
| program | programme | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A set of structured activities; a plan of action A leaflet listing information about a play, game or other activity To enter a program or other instructions into (a computer or other electronic device) to instruct it to do a particular task | UK, New Zealand, and India standard spelling of program UK standard spelling of program |
| Example | get with the program | Our programme for today’s exercise class includes swimming and jogging |
| Forms | programs | programmes |
| Pronunciation | /ˈpɹəʊ̯ˌɡɹæm/ /ˈpɹoʊ̯ˌɡɹæm/ /ˈpɹoʊ̯ˌɡɹeə̯m/ | /ˈpɹoʊˌɡɹæm/ /ˈpɹəʊɡɹæm/ /ˈpɹəʊɡɹəm/ |
| Region | no label | UK |
| In writing | 186 times per million words | 37 times per million words |
Sources: program and programme in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of program and programme
program
- 1
A set of structured activities; a plan of action
get with the program
- 2
To enter a program or other instructions into (a computer or other electronic device) to instruct it to do a particular task
He programmed the DVR to record his favorite show
- 3
A leaflet listing information about a play, game or other activity
The program consisted of ads for restaurants and the credits of everyone connected with the play
- 4
To develop (software) by writing program code
I programmed a small game as a demonstration
- 5
A set of principal goals which someone, especially a political party or candidate, supports
- 6
To put together the schedule of an event
Mary will program Tuesday’s festivities
- 7
A performance of a show or other broadcast on radio or television
Tonight’s program was hosted by Johnny Carson
- 8
To schedule the programming; to determine what will be broadcast
programme
- 1
UK, New Zealand, and India standard spelling of program
Our programme for today’s exercise class includes swimming and jogging
- 2
UK standard spelling of program
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, program or programme?
program appears 186 times per million words; programme 37 times per million words.
program 186 times per million wordsprogramme 37 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search program vs programme?
“program vs programme” is searched about 1,300 times a month on Google and 70 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“programme vs program”, “program or programme”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.