Programowy

Programowy is a Polish adjective derived from the noun program with the suffix -owy. In English, it is commonly translated as programmatic or software-related. The term denotes relation to a computer program or to software in general, rather than to hardware or human processes.

In information technology and computing, programowy is widely used to describe components, interfaces, formats, and tools that are implemented in software. Common collocations include interfejs programowy (software interface or API), narzędzia programowe (software tools), and format programowy (software-oriented data format). The adjective is also used in expressions such as architektura programowa (software architecture) and środowisko programowe (software environment). It often appears in contrast to hardware-related terms, such as sprzętowy, to distinguish software-side aspects from hardware implementations.

Outside strictly technical contexts, programowy can indicate that something follows a predefined program or sequence, but this usage is rarer and context-dependent.

In technical writing, programowy serves as a concise label for software-facing properties of a system. It appears in documentation, standards, and discussions about APIs and data interoperability. While the broader term oprogramowanie (software) is more common for the general concept, programowy emphasizes the software-specific nature of an element rather than its hardware or human aspects.