In British English, programme is the standard spelling for a plan, schedule or TV broadcast, but program is still used for computer software and code. Remember it as: on a screen and in code, keep the American "program"; everywhere else, spell it programme.
The core difference
British English splits the word by meaning: programme for plans and broadcasts, program only for computing.
- programme — a planned set of activities, schedule or broadcast, in standard British spelling: The BBC aired a new documentary programme on Sunday evening.
- program — a set of instructions for a computer, kept in this spelling even in British English: She wrote a program to automate the report.
How to tell them apart
Both words trace back to the Greek programma, "a public notice", built from pro- ("before") and grapho ("to write"). American English simplified the spelling to "program" for every sense, while British English kept the fuller "programme" for its everyday meanings but borrowed the American "program" specifically for computing, because that usage arrived from American computer science.
The split shows up constantly in British writing: a company's training programme uses the "-mme" spelling, but the software team's computer program does not. Mixing the two within the same British document, such as writing a "training program" or a "computer programme", reads as inconsistent.
